


Predator:  Darkness and Light

by KShai1715



Category: Alien Series, Alien vs Predator (2004), Predator Original Series (1987-1990)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:22:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 40,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28922778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KShai1715/pseuds/KShai1715
Summary: This is a direct sequel to my original work, Alien Vs. Predator:  Annihilation.Strongly suggest reading that work first.Darkness & Light follows the life of K'Shai, the human who joined the Yautja.
Relationships: OC/OC
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

Prey.

They were prey.

They were the hunted ones. Some of them were challenging and cunning, possessed of deadly  
weapons and enough of a combination of skill and insanity, with a barbaric rage to fuel their blood thirsty warring nature, that they were typically only hunted by the most experienced warriors, or those who were looking to prove they were up to the task, with lethal consequences in failure. 

To hunt such prey, quickly and bloodily drew the line between a fool and a warrior. They were smart and deadly enough to be worthy prey and the ones that proved to be less worthy than desired still became valuable adornments in any hunter’s collection.

This is what the Yautja, what he, had always known about the creatures of this world called Earth. The oomans. Now, they would be prey no more, by decree. It was the new way. For the damage done to the world had been so extensive, he doubted anyone, Yautja or human or any other native species was even going to survive the mass infestation of the kainde amedha, the hard meat. Still, the decree was in place as a way to protect the world and its species and help salvage the honor of the Yautja people for their part in the disaster.

He had hunted humans before, many times. His first experience on the world, tens of thousands of their moon rotations ago, provided him with a challenging hunt of deadly though fearful prey, and a surprising insight into the human concept of honor, something he was shocked to realize was not too dissimilar than a Yautja’s own view. He had returned to the world many times since and found the hunts challenging, with ample available prey, and such trophies always served as an assured way to improve one’s status and attract interested mates each new breeding season. 

His aged body bore scars, a sordid history of the situations he had survived now long faded to white and barely visible against the mottled gray patterns of his skin, of those hunts. His human trophies were a matter of personal pride to him. His very first hunt on the world had garnered him five trophies and an equal number of mates upon return home; mates that left scars of their own as he fought to dominate them. 

He had learned enough from his visits to the world of Earth to understand some of the many languages the oomans spoke. The species, he found, was confusingly and chaotically varied to the point of frustrating. It was hard enough to learn one of their complex languages full of variation and nonsensical words, and yet with each new visit to the world as he studied his prey, he found himself needing to learn another and another. 

Unlike lesser hunters, who had not learned from as capable of Leaders he once had, though, he knew that studying prey, learning about them and understanding their methods of communication, behavior patterns, and social structures were traits that separated skillful hunters from fools who would probably be killed. 

He learned enough about the human species to pick out the most powerful and fearsome prey that would garner him the best trophies and provide the most interesting challenges on a hunt, proving unequivocally, his hard earned status as a capable warrior, a dominant force in his Clan, and a worthy Leader; an Elder who had proven himself worthy to hunt, mate, and train others.

On those hunts, he learned all he ever needed to know about the uncivilized, fear-driven, and brutal race. He learned why they were impressive prey, and he learned why they were reserved for the most experienced hunters. He had seen others in his pack of peers, and even students under his tutelage, sent to greet Cetanu when faced off with the deadly creatures. 

He never imagined, though, that all of those hunts would lead to this moment and this experience that had tried and tested, challenged and upturned everything he knew about the alien people that inhabited this world.

He never envisioned this most recent experience, the all-out war against the kainde amedha and destruction of the human world, would take on the direction that it had. In fact, he recalled thinking, that had he been told of where his Path would lead before he had ever arrived to the world, he would have struck down the fool who spoke it. To say such things was unimaginable, he once thought. Such notions were pure disrespect of an Elder such as he. 

He had earned his blooding mark centuries ago, and in the rotations since, he had proven his might time and again, taken on the challenge of training students, and bore the scars that prey and mates had left upon him. 

Had any Yautja told him of where he would be on this day, he surely knew his blood would boil. Had he envisioned this day in a dream, some vague omen from the Gods that he barely understood, he would have thought for sure he was going mad; to think such things, such vile things. He was Yautja. Hardened, proud, strong, battle worn, of a dignified aged reflected in his gray skin, faded scars, long tusks, and the growth of horns and lined his jaws and crest of his head; features only of males who had survived as long as he. 

And he hunted well and survived due to cunning and tenacity and an accumulated wisdom that led him to change his way of thinking from the fiery and brash ways of youth to the tempered and confident ways of the Elder that had trained him. 

R’chnt pondered such things only briefly as his mind filled with thoughts of his most recent experiences on this world; the experience that changed everything he was sure he knew thanks to one, little, soft skinned human, who had reached out to him with timid curiosity and reservation, who would sneak into his camp, curiously eyeing him and his group, and push the limits of his tolerance, who had challenged him in ways he had never imagined. 

She challenged him to realize he did not know things he did not even know he did not know; she challenged his acceptance, and tried his patience, and by just being the curious thing she was, she inadvertently challenged him to be wise enough to step away from his centuries old, brutally reinforced Yautja ways and meet her on the same level of mutual intrigue.

Her curious and gentle nature clashed so dramatically with the weapons she carried and the angry scars etched into her soft skin. He did not know much about how humans aged, but he knew enough to at least understand that she was far from an elder of her own kind. She was mature sexually, he could smell that much at their first encounter, but she had a childlike curiosity that made him suspect she was young. 

Had she approached him, armed as she was, under any other circumstances, she would have found her fragile little body at the sharp end of his wrist blades. As it was, killing any human that was not kau’skvy-de, laden with a kainde amedha embryo, was strictly, and forever, banned as a matter of honor, unless for self-protection. She had done nothing to instigate him; mostly to annoy him at first.

He quickly thought to the first time he really paid the humans any mind. They had warily approached a field where a fleet of hunt ships and hundreds of hunters gathered to organize their attack. The line between hunt and war was skewed and R’chnt and many others considered the battle nothing more than an extermination, although it was debatable exactly who or what was doing the exterminating. Still, the Yautja job was clear. The kainde amedha must be destroyed at any and all costs to salvage any shred of Yautjan honor.

But amongst the humans cowering at the field’s edge, there she was, edging closer to where he stood than any of the others in her group. Over the weeks that passed and turned to months, her determined curiosity, despite certain fear on her face, struck him as most unusual, and as he indulged her curiosity as well as his own, he thought she would surely die. 

He recalled thinking, the first time he saw her eyeing him wildly in fear and amazement, cowering so low and yet still so exposed, foolishly close to hundreds of aggressive warriors that could have killed her in a thousand ways before she even realized she was a target, how it could possibly even be that such a little, fine, and delicate creature could have managed to survive so long. It was clear from the first look he shot her, from the first silent cue with his hand to direct her away, letting her know that he knew she was there and was entirely too close, that she was a typical human. 

Only some were worthy of the hunt. The rest were little more than a good meal, as fearful and panicked as any prey animal that would flinch and flee like a grazing beast blindly hoping to outwit the assault of the predator that wanted to feed upon it.

So, when she first started warily approaching their camp, eyeing the hunters with a curious and fearful gaze, she was ignored. Her endurance wore away at the entire group, though. They called her a wild animal; a persistent wild animal, blindly willing to walk into a camp of killers. She was weak. She was foolish. 

They mocked her, they laughed in amusement at her attempts to stalk the hunters like they hadn’t noticed her. And he could barely find himself without thoughts of her running through his mind. First, thoughts of her pitiful cowardly posture, then thoughts of her ever-present wide-eyed curiosity, then thoughts of her scars; proof plain as day that she had survived horrific encounters, probably worthy of retelling at any Yautja campfire, then thoughts of her endurance, her keen wariness that was keeping her alive, and her tough resilience etched into her skin.

That timid and helpless looking creature, despite wide and wondering eyes, wore the signs of battle-heavy burdens on her shoulders. Her tightly locked jaw and constantly panning gaze told R’chnt she was always calculating where she was, and just what was around her, even if her senses were not as keen as the Yautja before her. She would flinch at sounds of animals and trash blowing in the wind, but she still pressed on with her curiosity. She bore injuries from battles so recent that they barely healed, and beneath them, scars of older skirmishes highlighted her skin.

Her curiosity of the Yautja endured, and he found his own quickly piqued. He watched her when he made camp near the human group. He ignored the rumblings of his group as they mumbled amongst themselves why camp would always be made in the area of the human group that trailed them. 

R’chnt made sure to either always return to them, or ensure they did not lose sight of the hunters in the first place. He watched her interact amongst her own group, stray off on her own, and he watched her spy on his group when she clearly thought she had the advantage. 

When he once watched her as she removed her coverings in exchange for fresh and unsoiled garments, he saw aged and severe scars that mangled her lower right leg and imagined it must have been a feat unto itself for such a weak little creature to have recovered from such an injury and endure on under the conditions she was in. That day in particular, she had wandered away from her group, blindly approaching a zu’kainde, and for reasons he barely understood, he pulled her to safety, acting mostly on engrained instinct to kill the embryo-carrying creature and saving her as a mere by-product. 

Yet, despite the fear she displayed; the flush of heat that coursed her veins, the rapid heartbeat and ragged breathing, she did something he did not expect. She clamped her tiny hand around his arm and spoke to him. He could feel her body shivering and see the rush of heat from fear and panic flush her face as he watched her heart beat so wildly it seemed it might burst from her chest on its own, but she did not let go of the mighty hunter towering over her, not even as he retrieved his spear and wielded it inches away from her delicate frame, barely a third his size.

After several attempts in her tongue clearly asking him his name, he indulged both of their curiosities and responded. And in turn, she pushed further. 

She tried again and again to understand him each time the hunters returned to camp for some rest. They called her his human as they trilled their voices in a subtle laughter, thinking the whole situation was amusing to the point of ridiculous.   
She curiously tried to learn his language as best as her alien tongue could manage. 

She pushed more by trying to understand him and his people better. She listened to him and she watched his motions for guidance. She mimicked his gestures and mannerisms and tried her paltry best to hold up to brief training sessions, a pure delight to his hunting pack as they looked on in spectacular amusement. She did everything that prey was not supposed to do, and she disproved so much of what he had known about her uncivilized, barbaric people. 

He found K’Shai to be completely different than all the notions he had ever had of the race of ooman. Whereas most of the humans he had ever encountered and hunted were boisterous, brutal and deadly, she was quiet, reserved and gentle. 

She demonstrated an intelligence greater than her age and cranial size would suggest she was capable, and a strength of will in addition to strength of courage that was surprisingly different than her otherwise weak and soft body would suggest. She had a wisdom far beyond her own years. It was a wisdom that he was surprised to discover surpassed hunters far older than she. As he came to know her more, he realized it likely rivaled his own. The Yautja name he donned her fit her appropriately, strong heart. 

When the great battle against the kainde amedha began, R’chnt headed to the world, unsure if he would live to return to home once again, nor could he bother filling his mind with such concerns. The dishonor that had unfolded on the alien world of Earth had crippled the Yautja race on the whole. Individual lives mattered only so much as they were willing to fight and die. While it was not the result he hoped for on any hunt, he did still hope to die with honor when the Paya did finally call on him to join them. 

He was an honorable and honored Yautja Elder, a Master of the Hunt and a teacher of students of every level in both hunting and spirituality. He had lived his life following the Yautja Path of Honor and willingly faced deadly opportunities upholding to very Way he taught.

K’Shai had put everything he knew to the test, but never his honor. She had proven herself a capable warrior, far stronger than he or anyone in his hunting pack had initially given her credit for. He knew she was fragile, yet she was powerful and determined. 

And he knew her skin was soft, yet nothing prepared him for the first time she leaned in to him and put her lips to his cheek. He recalled rigidly stiffening, still and silent. He held his breath and froze, not sure how to gauge her actions or how he should react. The feel of her lips against his worn skin, warm and soft and wet and tender, was so foreign to him, yet it was a powerful experience that stunned and overwhelmed him.

She eyed him warily after that first moment, apparently trying to gauge him for any sign of reaction, and he hesitated; contemplating exactly how to respond without overpowering or frightening her. The brief delay was nearly too long as she suddenly withdrew with a combination of uncertainty and disappointment on her face. 

A myriad of thoughts ran through his mind in a fraction of a second, from the absurdity of the situation to the intoxicating scent of her body. Whether she knew it or not, he knew she was amply ready to receive him. She was tender, shivering softly, and she was aroused.

His natural reaction, had he caught the ripe scent of a Yautja female, would have been to bellow out his desire to mate, strip off his garments and make as public of a display as possible announcing his intention for that female to prove his worth to her and ward off challengers. 

Somehow, he thought, in that quiet early morning still on that rooftop weeks ago, his natural response would have been a bit too overbearing for K’Shai. He tempered himself and allowed her to show him the way she preferred, which quickly grew uncomfortable as she straddled him, further restricting access to his own growing arousal.

That is what caught him by the most surprise. He huffed deeply, taking in her scent in the air as she pressed her small body onto his thighs and ran her hands along his powerful abdomen. As her voice quivered while she gasped and leaned into him, caressing his face with her warm and moist lips and tongue, he found the alien sensations; the gentleness, of what he could only assume was typical for the human process of mating, completely foreign and utterly arousing. 

The moment barely seemed real. He focused in on her scent, growing more powerful by the moment. His own musk built in time with hers, and he wondered if her sense of smell allowed her to know how ready he was to have her at that moment.

Under any normal situation, he would have mated with her immediately, for a female’s willingness to be a party to mating was short-lived and hot-tempered. It was best to get the act complete as quickly as possible to limit physical injury to both parties. Delaying in such activities could sour a receptive female’s mood quickly, and an unhappy Yautja female was not something any intelligent male who valued his genitals, or any other part of his body, wanted to create.

But K’Shai was not Yautja. The very fact that he even grew aroused by her delicate touch was beyond the scope of any absurdity he could imagine. That he found the heated scent of her receptive body stimulating was perplexing to him. 

That he found her soft skin enticing, that his body churned as he ran his hands along her heaving chest and caressed her exposed milk glands which clearly stimulated her further, that his erection grew and dripped, uncomfortably restrained behind an armor codpiece that would have been long disposed of for a situation like that as she straddled him and caressed him and kissed him, would have made him question his sanity had he not been so hypnotized by the sensation of it all.

As it was, that night was not meant to be. They were in the midst of a war, and the combination of the hard meat arriving and an unexpected and very unwelcome interruption by a human of K’Shai’s group brought their activities to a quick end. The battle ensued and the situations that followed did not give any time for either of them to pick up where they had left off. 

Then, a few rotations ago, K’Shai was attacked brutally by males who intended to mate with her against her will. Even in the Yautja culture this was a forbidden act, and while typically such matters were handled strictly by females, including punishment of the offenders, R’chnt carried out a typical punishment for such crimes in defense of K’Shai. He severed the male’s genitals off while he watched and shrieked in agony before being slowly skinned from the toes first and ultimately eviscerated. 

Had he arrived a moment later, R’chnt knew K’Shai would have fallen victim to the unwanted penetration. 

For the last five rotations, he had been hunting down a hive and every one of its occupants that ran wild in the long abandoned streets of yet another human city, further delaying the culmination of their previous interactions. When he returned to K’Shai, injured from a high fall and deep gouge in his side, he crawled into bed with her and slept, exhausted. He woke up, decidedly embarrassed over his momentary weakness, and how he must have looked to her. 

She was, just a few days earlier, ready to mate with him and instead she just watched over him warily, surveying his wounds and no doubt trying to decide if he was up to such vigorous activities. It was natural for a Yautja, any Yautja, to gauge the physical status of another, especially if the other was older, higher ranked, and was weak enough to possibly be defeated by an otherwise incapable aggressor.   
He crawled into the bed with her despite his weakened state, reminding himself yet again that she was not Yautja. 

For someone so much smaller and paler and softer than any Yautja, he amused himself with the thought that he seemed to easily forget that she was not one. As her companions joined her, he knew they were surveying his injuries as well. He immediately suspected the males were gauging his ability to continue as Leader. Perhaps they were keen on attempting to take his place, he thought while they watched him. He felt his grip tighten on the hilt of the sword on his waist, just in case.

“My friend Carlos would like to look you over, R’chnt.” K’Shai had said to him as she approached him.

He grumbled a refusal once, then twice at her insistence.

“He’s a healer. At least let him look. There’s probably not much he can do.” She tried again and again he growled a decline. 

It was bad enough to be in the weakened state he was. He removed himself from sight of the rest of his group to allow some time to recover. The thought of having yet more witnesses to his condition and to top it off to be medically evaluated by an alien was detestable. 

She smiled coyly at him, pressing her lips together softly as she carefully considered the situation. She placed her small palm gently on his jaw, delicately cupping the bony tusk protrusions that grew from his lower mandible as she gazed at him.

“My friends are,” she spoke softly, barely above a whisper, and slowly as she struggled to make the proper sounds and remember the word order of R’chnt’s spoken language, “nervous about this. They don’t really know what to make of it. About us. Letting him look you over is his way of showing that they are trying to accept this.”

Humbled by a wisdom he hadn’t even considered, he nodded in agreement, and as it turned out, the male human healer was able to retrieve the broken finger of a kainde amedha that had been lodged into the thick muscles of his back, deep enough that the claw was pushing between R’chnt’s ribs. 

It felt better immediately upon extraction and he had not even realized it was there. He could breathe easier the moment it was removed. He assumed the pain he was feeling was from the hard fall off the rooftop to the ground some fifty feet blow when the thing knocked him off the structure. 

He was not about to complain about the sharp pain before his pack, or ask the healer amongst his own group for attention. It was one thing to seek assistance for minor issues like a broken appendage or jaw, and other issues like superficial wounds were easy enough to attend to on one’s own with basic field training, but for a Leader to seek out help from those under him in his own hunting pack, was a sure fire way to be presumed too weak to continue on.

He had returned to K’Shai immediately after tracking their way back through the strange alien towns only to find her asleep. Sucked in by her quiet peacefulness in the darkness of the pre-dawn hours, he simply filed into bed stealthily, smelling the sweetness of her skin and sharing her warmth with his own. 

She stirred and had greeted him with a pleasant touch, brimming smile, and gentle caress. He had wanted to engage her further, but he had hunted without rest for six days straight. Such an excursion pushed the limits of any Yautja, and despite his many intense hunts, he had trouble recalling such a time where he found so little sleep in so many rotations of the sun and moon, before he simply passed out into deep sleep under her caress, the soft weight of her head pressed against his chest as she extended an arm around his abdomen.

He found it mildly perplexing that she did not view his momentary weakness as a failure on his part. 

She did not make dismissive gestures or grunt admonishingly, nor did she display any desire to challenge his authority in light of his incapacitation, however short-lived it might be. K’Shai did not view his injuries as a reflection of weakness, and neither did her companions, which was a concept hard for him to understand. They extended a helping hand to the best of their abilities, and hoped the interaction would fuel some attempt at co-existing with him for the sake of their companion. 

They hoped his pain would make him more receptive to their help, and though they approached him, he could see and smell their fear.

After he rested more, R’chnt and K’Shai spent the entire day with the rest of his group. One of the others hunted some food and offered up a chance for the group on the whole to recuperate from their most recent excursion, on the roof of the very same building the humans kept their own camp in. 

He sat in quiet contemplation of K’Shai’s actions, and those of her companions, trying his best to work out the human mentality if he could. It was so drastically different from a Yautja’s view, that as he scanned K’Shai, lost in thought, he wondered if he would ever really understand the human kind. It seemed their males understood their females far better than he could even understand females of his own kind.

K’Shai sat close to R’chnt and as they day wound down, she crept closer and closer until her flank and hips were pressed into his thigh and his large hand and armor braced forearm encompassed her so completely she was blanketed by his warmth as the sun dipped, the air cooled, and rain clouds moved in. She kept her eyes turned away from him, watching the group around her instead, but the coy contact, the gentle touch of her body against his, was clearly intentional and it made R’chnt’s mind brew on other topics, like their last few encounters together. 

It was a whole chain of realities that he found borderline insane and impossible. He wanted her and he knew by her previous advances, the powerful scent in the air of her readiness to be mated, and her absolute need for physical contact with him, that she wanted him. How she greeted him and stayed by him whenever he was near, was something else foreign to him, as female Yautja never pursued mates or took a singular interest in any male. It was always up to the male to make his interest known in whatever way he needed to in order to get her attention, and then hope her attention would be positive, and not bone-breaking in return.

K’Shai, while keeping her gaze away from R’chnt as her body gently graced his, thrilled him with a coy hint of desire, the scent of which filtered into his nasal passages as she sat near him. He could sense she wanted him, yet she also kept him just confused enough, by not engaging with him further to, make him stew in silent frustration. 

His body still ached, though the medicines he took relieved much of the pain. He wondered if she could sense that he was still hurting and was put off by the idea of his weakness. Perhaps she thought he was not up to the physical strain of intense interaction with her. 

Perhaps she was eyeing W’rsa so intently because he was younger, less injured, and his bright bold markings against his subdued yellow flesh contrasted dramatically to R’chnt’s own faded grays, which once were a brilliant sea of reds, greens, and yellows atop heavy black mottling. 

He glanced at his own skin for a moment and suddenly felt a flicker of anger rise up as he torqued his upper mandibles in subdued rage and confused contemplation. He shook the thoughts from his mind as K’Shai leaned just a bit deeper into him and placed her hand carefully, with a hint of reluctance, on his thigh. 

The sensation of her hand, which felt cool against his naturally hotter body, had the effect of distracting him completely. He picked up on her subtle uncertainty. 

In the same way as she had first touched him, pressing her lips to his cheek and waiting, shaking softly, to gauge his reaction, she likewise put her hand on the inside of his thigh carefully and he felt her take a certain pause. He knew immediately that this was her reserved way of gauging what he would permit. 

Without a word, she was asking permission to touch him more. Had she been Yautja; had she been male, the opportunity to touch him then ask for permission would never have happened. Had she been Yautja female, it would have been R’chnt who would have waited in reservation, surveying the female’s mood to try to figure out what her next move was going to be; pleasant or painful. 

K’Shai was neither and he welcomed the mental distraction and deeper contact. Without hesitation, as their first encounter had caught him so off guard, R’chnt shifted his position slightly, softening into her, answering her question in silent return and she took a firmer hold, sliding her hand even more along the inside of his thigh.

She never looked at him. She simply listened to the Yautja hunting pack telling tales of their conquests old and new. R’chnt watched her, studying the gaze in her eyes, silently understanding that she was trying to keep up with the flurry of grumbling, throaty and shrill clicking sounds of multiple conversations, deciphering whatever words she knew and trying her best to fill in the gaps as best as she could, throughout the day and after the sun dropped beyond the darkening clouds as a storm moved in. 

Feeling stronger from the day of quiet rest and much needed food and drink, R’chnt let his mind drift as the evening moved on. 

He fell quiet for so long he had barely heard a single word of any of the conversation around him. He moved his arm into K’Shai tighter, ever so subtly drawing her in even closer to him and she immediately responded comfortably by leaning her body just slightly further under the pressure of his direction until her shoulder pressed into his ribcage. He turned his mighty jaws towards her, clicking softly; the first sound he had made since before the sun withdrew from its rotation.

K’Shai heard it and tipped her head to him, drawing her lips back and exposing her teeth; an action he had learned from watching her that conveyed happiness, comfort, or intrigue. He learned that, not unlike the Yautja, humans facial expressions were often backed up with body language. 

It was a challenging learning process for him to begin to decipher such subtle shifts in positioning of K’Shai’s face and body that conveyed her intent and emotion. He found understanding her alien mannerisms difficult and sometimes confusing and conflicting. Sometimes he wondered how two humans interacting with each other even understood what the other was meaning. 

To a Yautja, exposing the teeth in such a way, especially combined with direct eye contact, was a definite challenge. R’chnt felt himself stiffen with alarm as K’Shai had first made the gesture to him, as the facial expression had conflicted so much with her submissive body position at the time, he was actually surprised she would dare challenge him, and over what he had no idea, since they were having a peaceful interaction. 

He had finally inquired, braced and defensively, about the gesture, and deflated a bit when she explained that a smile was a human expression of pleasure. He perceived it well now, and the shimmer in her eyes as a flicker of lightening in the distance caught her attention, told him she was curious about the sound he made. 

She glanced around at the skies, her expression changing slightly as she took note of the brewing storm rolling in, then she turned to him with a look he had seen in her eyes not once, but twice before. Two interrupted times before. 

He had seen, what he believed, was the full range of K’Shai’s moods; reserved curiosity tainted with fear and uncertainty, true fear, pain, and contentment. Every time he surveyed her, he became better at reading and understanding her moods, although, he could not tell exactly the interpretation of the newest gaze she cast at him, he could see the minor change in her features. 

She shifted her eye contact down, and softly gripped her lower lip with the corner of an upper tooth while she surveyed his body, scanning her eyes over his old scars, fresh wounds, faded spots and pale gray belly.

She cast him another small smile and nudged her shoulder into him gently, carefully avoiding his injuries. 

“Maybe we should go inside. It’s going to rain.” 

K’Shai whispered the words to him as she tipped her head closer to his jaws. She spoke in her own tongue, knowing full well he would understand, and she spoke quietly enough perhaps so she was not overheard by the others in case they understood as well. The others in his pack all spoke some of the human languages, but there were many and each hunter’s vocabulary of whichever languages they knew, was somewhat insufficient to hold a conversation. 

Even if anyone did hear, it made no difference to R’chnt if they knew and understand where the pair would be heading or why. 

R’chnt’s scent changed in an instant at her invitation, informing his group through finer, highly-developed senses, exactly what his intentions were. 

The fact that she preferred to be inside, out of the rain was of no consequence to him, but as he allowed her to show the way down the stairs that jutted off the side of the building and down two levels to the private living accommodations where she had been staying, he could not help but presume that a public display of her intentions was not something she desired. He assumed that was the human way as well, keeping such matters private. 

She stepped through the viewing portal into the living area, scurrying just a bit faster the last few feet, as the skies opened up and rain poured down on them both. K’Shai giggled as she quickened, apparently trying to avoid the rain for whatever reason. He was sure that humans could tolerate being wet and the precipitation was not burning to the skin as it was on some worlds he had been to, but he did not spend much time considering her unusual reaction to the water pouring down. 

R’chnt crawled through the narrow opening and K’Shai watched him. Though he had spent the day resting, he was still on an alien world, on a hunt, surrounded by aliens of two different species, and in the middle of a war. He had never let his guard down and had remained fully armored, ready to go at a moment’s notice. K’Shai eyed him as he crawled through the much-less-than-Yautja-sized opening into the living area without scraping so much as a lock of his thick, ropy hair against the frame of the building.

Five days had passed since she had last seen him. His absence throughout those shortened fall days had given her own body time to heal, apparently while his was out getting fresh injuries. She had been beaten, stabbed, and nearly raped the last night they were together. 

The following days had given her plenty of time to reflect on his actions that night, not to mention his impeccable timing, preventing the deed from taking away her unspoiled gift she wished to bestow upon him. It allowed her plenty of time to anticipate that moment, to imagine what it would be like to feel him.

He stood tall after he climbed through the window, a few droplets of fresh rain rolling off his head, down the length of his thick, dreadlocked hair, and dripping from the edges of the armor he wore over his shoulders. K’Shai eyed him, softly biting her lower lip and steadying her gaze. He loomed in the dark apartment, with ceilings that offered only a few inches of clearance over his mighty frame. 

Towering over her by nearly two full feet, the top of her head barely leveled with the bottom of his pectoral muscles. She had quickly gotten accustomed to looking up at him long ago. 

R’chnt was taller than all the others in his group. The only other one who came anywhere close to his size was W’rsa, who still was a good four inches shorter. R’chnt towered over the others in his group by a solid twelve inches and he was of a bigger build than any of them. Unlike the human process of aging that left a body weak, wrinkled, shrunken and frail, the Yautja grew throughout their lives, and impressive height, body mass, and long tusks, were all indicative of a hunter of advancing age. 

R’chnt amplified those features with the growth of additional tusks along the bottom of his lower mandibles and rows of horn-like calcifications that protruded from his skull, in addition to the loss of the once bright colors of his skin. He was solid, sturdy, powerful, and his very posture was enough to make anyone tremble in his shadow. 

R’chnt commanded respect and dominance without even so much as moving.   
His muscles were well defined and broad, his solid body a living monument to his strength, prowess, and foreboding aggression. 

He carried himself with pride, stood tall and intimidating, with his back straight, shoulders wide, large, clawed feet firmly under him, hips’ width apart. His powerful and dignified stature, grayed facial quills, weathered look, and his sharply-toothed mouth capped with four mandibles each crowned with tusks over three inches long, longer than any of the others’ in his group, told the story in silence of his experience, cunning, strength, and ferocity. 

The emanating scent from him was arousing; a heavy aroma that K’Shai could almost taste in the air, strong enough to be unmistakable, but also with a lightly sweet scent that drew her in and made her feel eased and peaceful as she stared at him. His body was a magnificent totem of muscle, scars, and alien decorations of bone, metals, jewels, and beads. 

His lower left mandible was capped in a tusk that had been broken off about an inch from the tip. He had a piercing through the tusk that grew downward from the same mandible. The little metallic bead shimmered softly as lightening from outside lit the room. She eyed his chest moving ever so slightly as he breathed, noticing the lines and textures of his sculpted muscles and the thick skin that stretched ever so powerfully tight over them.

She moved into him and he held so still he might have been confused for some kind of display piece in the livingkitchen area. She could feel her own heart pounding, her nerves tingling in anticipation intermingled with just a hint of reservation and as she reached out to touch his gray skin, feeling the immense warmth of his stationary body as she laid her fingertips against his mighty chest and brushed her hand over his body, pushing it under the dangling bone necklaces he wore that dropped so low they almost looked like sashes across his chest amid the leather straps and metal buckles that secured his torso armor, she wondered idly, for a flicker of a moment, if he was at all nervous too. 

If he was, his steady gaze and tightly clenched mandibles and typical straight and proud posture did not reveal any hint of it.

“Finally alone,” she whispered to him as she drew firmly into him.

He was not caught off guard by her advance. Not this time. He was anticipating it just as much as she was. 

Her body’s pheromones changed the instant she climbed into the sanctuary of the quiet and dry space. While on the roof top throughout the day, the scent that wafted into him teased him constantly, indicating that she was most certainly cycling through a breeding season and receptive to mating. 

Just when he thought the enticing scent could not possibly get stronger, it did. He watched her eyeing him with a desiring, hungry look and her scent amplified in a moment. As she stepped in to him and made contact with his body, he could smell her readiness just as instantly as he could feel his own body churning and musk building, telling her he was ready as well.

She pressed herself against him, wrapping her small hands around his torso as far as she could reach and without the slightest hint of delay, R’chnt lifted her off the ground, tucking one gauntlet covered forearm under her thighs while the other hand stroked her from the shoulder to the bottom of her back. 

She wrapped her legs loosely around his waist and groaned softly. R’chnt clicked in excitement and the sound quickly turned into a deep, pleased rumble; a low growl that turned into a purr after just a few of her gentle and arousing caresses. 

K’Shai was direct, unquestioning in her intentions, her scent building in his nasal passages, but she was also gentle. She melded her body into his, fondling him passionately, with clear desires for mating and yet no intention to challenge him or push him aggressively. It was mystifying to him how she could be so submissive and aggressive at the same time and he returned the gesture in kind by controlling his desire to tackle and dominate her.

K’Shai pressed her lips into his cheek. 

Her warm moist lips and tongue pecked and slid over his thickened facial skin and the tusks along his lower mandibles and found their way over and past every wrinkle and scar, taking in every detail of the right side of his face, feeling so soft against him, yet so stimulating. 

She reached one arm up and whisked aside a few strands of his heavily beaded hair in one quick motion and his body shuddered. The feel of her small, soft hand against his hair, however briefly, stimulated the sensitive tissues of the half a dozen or so strands that she gripped. He preferred no one to touch his hair, save only for the necessity of having the rings and beads fused to his locks during ceremonies that recognized his hunts, accomplishments, and elevation in status and rank. 

Unlike K’Shai’s own soft flowing human hair, which was comprised of dead fibers, the blood and nerve filled strands of R’chnt’s living hair not only conveyed heat through his body, they were a source of pain if improperly handled, and as K’Shai discovered by his aroused reaction to her touch, they provided pleasure when touched in a certain manner. She paused only briefly at the shuddering reaction and noticed R’chnt close his eyes in the same moment, locked tight mandibles suddenly relaxing apart, his lower mandibles dropping down, relaxing open as the upper ones eased up to release them. His growling purr amplified and K’Shai immediately pressed her lips further back along his jaw. 

Her lips and tongue traced over the small quill-like hairs that protruded from the side of his lower mandible, a beard of sort. The quills also sparsely grew over his temple, above his eyes, and along the ridges of both side of his head, intermixed with fine rows of bony horn protrusions that extended from his temple to nearly the back of his skull. R’chnt’s entire body suddenly eased up at the stimulation of the fine quills. His purr changed for a moment to a subtle groan of complete delight as her touch sent waves of pleasure through him.

He shifted his hold on her only slightly and moved his hand that had slid down her back to caress just under her butt, to his own belt buckle. He moaned uncomfortably at the growing pressure behind the protective cod piece that sat atop his leather loin cloth as he reached in to unlatch the belt. K’Shai whimpered and moaned in delight and as she moved her hands back along his body, she leaned in tightly against him and whisked his hand away from its intended destination before it got to where it was going. 

She leaned at an angle into his free hand, fully supported by his unfailingly firm grip he had under her thighs with the other hand, and pressed her chest into his palm as she moved both hands across his chest and feverishly fingered at the buckles of his awu’asa, his hunting armor.

R’chnt clicked and trilled and purred, echoing K’Shai’s own soft and light vocalizations. Distracted for a moment from relieving himself of the growing pressure at his waist, he watched her eyeing the buckles and connections to the chest plating of his armor as she stroked her hands along the wide leather straps and tried to fumble with them like they were some kind of complex puzzle pieces that had no way to come apart.

He guided her hands, showing her without a word how to unclasp his armor, starting with the support arm and control connections and power supply for the shoulder mounted plasma caster that he wore over his left shoulder and down the left side of his back. 

Their hands moved together, briskly removing the pieces and he gripped the entire unit as a whole in his left hand, dropping it with a thud to the ground at his feet, the cannon making a small, fading whirring sound as its connections to its power source were cut. Without delay, he helped her understand how to take apart the next connection and judging by her sudden and emphatic shriek of pleasured delight, she was surprised to see that a single connection released the entire rest of his chest armor which he quickly dropped to join the shoulder weapon.

She slid her palms over his bared shoulders and once more tenderly groped the back of his neck, running her hand through his hair, stimulating him into a deeper purr, distracting even more completely from removing his belt as he had intended. As the sound of his own low rumble filled his ears, he barely even realized he was distracted from just about everything except the scent her body and the surging of his own body, which was becoming more difficult for him to keep in check as she made light moaning and cooing sounds which grew more intense with every passing moment and caress as she succumbed to her own body raging.

Without effort, she found the clasps to his trophy necklaces and ribbed black neck seal, releasing them all in a few feverish passes of her hands and allowing them to drop out of her grip and onto the floor. Leaning back in the firm support of his arm, she removed her upper coverings in a single swipe, crossing both hands in front of her body, and raising her elbows in the air as she pulled her garments free. Her hands dropped again and she removed an additional garment that adhered tightly to her body in support of her milk glands.

R’chnt’s body churned and moaned to him, both in constrained discomfort and heightened arousal. 

K’Shai pressed herself against him again and his hands slid along her body, around her chest, up and down her sides, across her neck and under her hair, taking in the light, soft feel of her smooth skin under his heavy fingers and palms. His claws trailing more than an inch past the ends of the skin of his fingers, glided smoothly over her delicate skin. Though thoroughly distracted by the discomfort of his own pressure he was enduring at the expense of her pleasure, he remained aware of exactly how much pressure he applied to her skin with his claws and his firm grip. He caressed her and embraced her, but he paid careful mind not to puncture her or crush her against his solid body as she leaned and rocked and licked and kissed him, her hands rubbing everywhere they could reach.

His purr changed momentarily to a rumble as K’Shai elicited further arousal, rubbing her hands teasingly low, brushing over his belt buckle, allowing her fingers to whisk over the cod piece, reminding him of the discomfort of the restriction he was enduring while he clenched her close to his body. 

Her softly tipped fingers, with only short, broken, and dirty fingernails and no damaging claws, glided easily along the horizontal tracts between sections of the dlex metal codpiece and her hands flowed smoothly in opposite directions, brushing over the loincloth, ever so lightly igniting the inside of his thighs.

Just then, she quietly indicated for him to release her back down to the ground. He eased her back down the distance to the floor and she landed easily on her feet, eyeing him with an inviting smile and a light laugh before she turned and started slowly moving away from him. She paused to remove the large, protective coverings over her feet and a liner that covered her skin, and then swayed quite deliberately as she strode away delicately removing the long garment that covered her waist and legs.

R’chnt could feel the pain of his arousal as his body screamed at him to ease the pressure. Without delay, accompanied by an intrigued rumble somewhere between a growl and a moan, he unclipped the belt that supported the cod piece as well as the armor plating that protected major muscles of his thighs from serious injury. He removed an additional belt he wore, which supported more weapons, a food satchel, and a pack of other supplies. 

K’Shai made her way down a short corridor and into the room with the sleeping platform which was not too dissimilar from his own, only smaller, lower, and less substantial in appearance and firmness and slid onto it, still facing R’chnt. She pulled herself backward and waited, heaving excited breaths as she did, while he paused to unlatch the armor plating that protected his forearms and lower legs from the knee down and finally removed the sandals under his feet. 

He had barely even noticed that the edges of the armor had actually begun to impress into his skin along his forearms, knees, and lower legs from constant use for such an extended period of time. It felt good, though colder than he preferred in the tiny space of the dwelling, to be removed of his armor. 

He only briefly tried to even remember the last time he even had it all off. Sleeping in his armor, especially while on a hunt, was something he was certainly accustomed to, but he could not recall any time in his life when he wore the equipment non-stop for so many rotations. Though the cycles of the sun and moon on her world were shorter than his own, he knew he had been on the alien planet for two-hundred-fifteen of them, and had come to know K’Shai through most of them. 

He moved into K’Shai, who reached forward to greet him eagerly with her hands immediately gripping both sides of his hips.

He leaned over towards her, one hand propped on the soft mattress, his face near hers as she greeted him again with her lips. Her hands left his hips and traced his body softly as she laid back under him and scooted backwards onto the bed more and removed the final piece of garment she wore, which covered her groin. 

R’chnt kept his gaze on her body and watched her slide under him, his tusks teasingly dragging along her chest and abdomen as she did, eliciting panting and moaning, making her smile with delight as she returned to touching him delicately. 

And she was delicate. Everything about her was fine and fragile, yet she was deceivingly powerful and strong. She was a gentle, curious creature, with thin and easily damaged skin that felt soothing and arousing as she pressed it against his. The scars and bruises and injuries that littered it told a tale of her strength, of what she had survived and the victories she had accomplished, and yet her almost passive nature, especially as she enticed and submitted to him, wet and heaving before him, reminded him of her fragility. 

As she stretched her body under him, he surveyed her, noticing the details of every bone easily visible under the thin layer of skin; a reflection of her struggle to survive and find consumable food. Even for the Yautja, the hunting was challenging. The kainde amedha could destroy any eco system fully, killing all forms of life by direct injury, impregnation, or simple starvation. 

She smiled and cooed, and he savored every detail of her small body. The nude human form was hardly something he had never truly paid attention to before, but he had also never associated with a human on such a level. He found K’Shai captivating, her scent enticing, her touch arousing, and her strength and spirit appealing; and he had had more than enough delays in taking her. 

He reached his other hand down to finally remove the last piece of his own coverings, his loin cloth of thick, well-tanned, fine hides that were braided and fringed in the traditional methods he preferred. Though he immediately had a rush of relief from pressure with the cod armor removed, he was still eager to devoid himself of the loin cloth as well. He was already partially mounted over K’Shai as he leaned over the bed, feet still on the floor. 

She watched his hand move to undo the wrappings and she inched back closer to him, extending her hands to meet his.

“Let me.” She whispered intently. 

R’chnt purred as K’Shai, breath held, unwrapped the loin cloth from around his waist and exposed every inch of his body to her full view. She heaved her chest and panted as she ran her hands along his abdomen and took in all the details on his body with her fingers and eyes. 

His body shuddered again, slightly withdrawing defensively as she placed her softly shaking hands along the hard shaft of his erection and caressed it firmly from the tip to his body and underneath, between his thighs and back again a second and third time. R’chnt growled deeply, overtaken with the unusual sensation to his most delicate and guarded area. 

She eased the tension out of his body with every gentle stroke and lulled him into such a deep ecstasy that he had relinquished control of his own body purely to her touch, trusting her on a previously untapped level of innate acceptance. 

K’Shai cooed and groaned, slowly running her hands back and forth along his shaft, familiarizing herself with every fold of skin, every ridge that provided grip and texture, every quill that grew along his skin at the base of his now dripping rod, every curve of the bulge of testicles that sat below. 

She gripped him tightly, and opened and closed her hands as she groped him, allowing her fingers to trail purposefully along the entire middle seam of his testicles and along the bottom of his shaft right up to the tip, slowly caressing him and building his arousal so much it almost hurt.

Dripping wet and filled with delight, R’chnt chuffed, growled, and purred, catching the ever heightened scent of K’Shai’s lubed up body screaming its readiness to be taken. He slid his free hand along her face, delicately caressing the details of her lips as her mouth gaped and her eyes closed. His hand guided itself down her chest, over her breasts, along her ribcage, smoothly gliding along the bony line of her hip until it found its way between her legs. He fingered her wet entrance and K’Shai howled in delight.

Her breathing quickened and her entire raging body surged with a single touch as she dropped back against the mattress to allow him better access. He could see her temperature raise and the sounds she made thrilled him, driving him wild.

K’Shai moved back further onto the bed, centering herself on the mattress completely and R’chnt crawled on top of her, knees on either side of her, palms down near her shoulders, stiff erection at the ready, dripping over her. He lowered his mighty head and caressed her body again with his tusks, heaving a deep breath, drawing in all of her scent as she huffed and moaned below him.

He could feel his raging body, dripping with readiness, screaming to him to take her as his instincts were driving him to do. It was the first time in his life that he had a willing partner laying submissively before him, wet, heaving, and ready for mating, that was not challenging his dominance, threatening or inflicting physical harm, or displaying anger at his advances. She trusted him fully and she waited, with quickly depleting patience, judging by the sudden increase in her heart rate, temperature, respiration and moaning sounds, for him to take her.

Naturally, his instincts told him to wrestle her down, bite into her neck, force her into enough submission to allow him access to her to get the job done as quickly and aggressively as possible. He assumed humans mated in similar ways; he could not imagine any species that did not. 

But, he also observed K’Shai and her behaviors for long enough to know that she was not a female Yautja. She laid before him eyeing him invitingly, scanning his heaving chest and flared tusks as he repositioned himself above her, raising and lowering her own chest and moaning as she stroked the curving and flowing muscles that comprised his forearms with her tender touch.

R’chnt exhaled a long, slow breath, and shocked even himself to find his body reacting almost out of his control, doing something he never imagined. He slowed down, calmed himself and listened to K’Shai’s wild heart beat pounding away. 

He shifted his position and wedged one knee between her legs, which she readily spread for him and then brought his other knee between her thighs as she readied herself.   
He scanned her body, watching her throb and pant and coo as his own erection pulsed. 

He wanted to take in the full effect of her body and he wanted to do it carefully and slowly. He scanned every detail of her body, from her long dark hair to her fine skin streaked with still healing bruises and scars of old injuries intermixed with the damages from her most recent incident. He dropped his head and brushed his tusks against her carefully, taking in her scents again, savoring them, so strong he could taste them as he absorbed every inch of the texture of her creamy soft skin with one more caress of his hand, eliciting more of the sounds she continued to make.

He moved his waist closer to hers and his erection, almost painful as it awaited the opportunity to find release, found her moist entrance easily. R’chnt reached a hand along the back of K’Shai’s thigh and subtly repositioned her before he pushed himself into her.

To that point, every indication K’Shai offered R’chnt, from her gentle touches, to the warm feel of her lips, and the overpowering scent her body emitted, told him on an instinctual level that she was ready for mating. When he entered the tip of his shaft into her, she reacted in an unexpected way. 

Her body, so loose, soft, and wet and inviting, suddenly went tense. She kicked her legs rigidly, sucking in a ragged and sharp breath and holding it; an immediate and powerful reaction to an unfamiliar event happening to her body. The reaction was almost similar to the way she experienced the pain of injury, but he knew he had not hurt her; he had barely even managed to put the tip of himself inside of her tight little entrance.

He realized she was reacting not out of challenge, defiance, or sudden change of interest, but from uncertainty and unfamiliarity, having never before been entered. The male Yautja’s body was built for keeping his mate in place. The nodules on his shaft ensured a secure hold when it was time for release into a female, and it was in a male’s nature to plant his tusks firmly into the skin of his mate, to mark her body with signs of mating and to make her think twice about trying to fight away. 

Despite his almost immediate reaction to respond to her aggressively, R’chnt restrained himself. He saw no sign that she was trying to go anywhere or put up a fight. Her sudden change in breathing, her increased heartrate, and the flush of heat that blossomed in response to the stimulation all told him she was simply uncertain and nervous.

“Relax, K’Shai,” he said in a quiet whisper in his own language, for he knew she knew those words. He leaned down closer to her and nudged her face gently with his tusks, offering a reassurance. “Take ease.”   
He wanted to penetrate further into her, but he stopped and waited for her to relax. 

“I will not hurt you.” He assured her again.

She was ready, he knew, but she was apprehensive about the new sensation her body was experiencing. Although it was not new to him to be the first to enter a female, it was certainly a new experience to be with an alien female barely one third his size. 

She was small and so was her entrance and when her body tensed, so did her tract and he felt her clamp down upon him uncomfortably. He was comparatively much larger, but he was sure she would stretch to accommodate him, assuming he could get her to relax enough to allow further penetration without hurting her.

He waited, encouraging her again with gentle caresses of his tusks against her cheek and chest until he felt her body release the tension. Having never removed himself from as far into her as he made it, he simply waited until the moment presented himself and he penetrated slightly further, pausing again as she moaned in a high pitch and clamped her hands down hard onto his forearms.

She gaped her mouth and tipped her chin towards the ceiling, pressing her head back into the pillows below it as she stretched under him, clenching and releasing her grip to the sound of synchronized moaning with every slight pressure and release. When each opportunity of relaxation offered itself, he pushed deeper into her, slowly and carefully, knowing for as delicate as her outer skin was, having been exposed to the wear and tear of war, the untouched skin inside her was far more delicate.

R’chnt became acutely aware of the pressure returning to encompass his erection once again as he penetrated deeper into her tight tract. Every ripple of skin that provided texture and sensation through the lubricating juices both bodies were releasing suddenly felt unlike anything he had experienced before. As his shaft slowly made its way into the foreign and tight territory, the soft and warm skin of K’Shai’s entrance tract clutched onto him as he pressed every raised nodule of skin along his rod deeper into her, an inch at a time. 

K’Shai moaned and squealed and stretched her legs and changed the angle as he guided her. Her panting and groaning was matched in intensity by his own heaving breaths as he flared his tusks and pressed himself deeper and deeper, pausing less and less between each new thrust as he became more fully coated in her secretions and she relaxed more, allowing himself to slide more easily into the tight tract until he was fully engulfed into her.

He paused, watching her carefully for signs that he may have inadvertently caused her pain. He wanted to be careful with her; gentle as she had been with him, but he also did not truly know just what the threshold of her tolerance would be. He knew he would need to always need to be careful how he handled her. When it came to activities like sparring, he had a much more natural sense of how much force he could use against an opponent such as K’Shai, however when it came to mating with her, he was in an uncharted domain.

He saw no signs of discomfort as she relaxed and held her breath for a moment. Only the sound of the rain outside beating down against the window filled the room over the joined beating of their hearts before he whispered to her.

“Sei-h’tu?”

She pressed her lips together in a thin smile, tipped her head back and stroked his arms, up to the shoulder delicately with her fingertips.

“I’m ready,” she responded.

“Do not tense, K’Shai.” He said in a quiet warning.

She nodded and licked her lips, biting down so hard she almost drew blood, but said nothing. With that, R’chnt slowly withdrew, eliciting a simply overpowering rush of sensations through both of them. The feeling of his shaft dragging backwards through a space it barely fit into in the first place was like nothing he ever experienced and the deep bellow that he rumbled came immediately, and rivaled the intensity of K’Shai’s own sudden, high pitched moaning.

R’chnt flared his tusks wider than he was quite sure he had ever flared them, even in direct challenge to the death of an opponent, for even nothing he had ever hunted had stirred him so wildly as the soft and tight little body of the human he chose to mate with did now. 

He groaned in delight as he retracted himself nearly to the tip and paused only for a moment to allow his howling mate to adjust to the sensations she just experienced for the first time in her life, before he slid forward again to her high pitched whimpering, dripping wetness, and rocking hips.

To the tune of their joined moans, R’chnt retracted and inserted himself repeatedly, slowly, letting the both of them adjust to the rush of sensations that flooded them. With each new labor on his part, K’Shai seemed to relax more. Her body, well coated in lubrication, was slowly beginning to adjust to his width and length and as it did, he thrust himself forward a little faster, a little harder, a little more feverishly each time. K’Shai raised her hips to meet his thrusts and rocked back just enough on each withdrawal to send a wave of ecstasy surging through his body each and every time. 

He chuffed and grunted as she moaned and panted below him while he worked his pace into a steady rhythm, pumping and thrusting into her as their pleasured breathing matched in perfect synchrony. After a short while, he shifted his hip angle ever so slightly and continued on. The effect was immediate and made them both bellow louder than before, as he tipped himself enough to penetrate deeper into her. His body built a thin layer of sweat as both their temperatures rose to elevated levels.

K’Shai moaned louder as R’chnt held his breath for a moment, listening to the sounds she was making, gauging her comfort level to the best that he could sense. Her high pitched squeals, muffled by her clenched lips, were somewhere between pain and pleasure. Not so pain filled that he suspected he was hurting her or needed to stop, but yet overwhelmingly pleasurable enough to cause euphoria that was borderline paralyzing. He pushed himself deeper into her and pulled himself smoothly back out, watching her flex and clench her hands highly around his arms and shoulders and release in rhythm with his actions as he felt his body churning to its culmination.

He was aware of the sound of his own hearts beating tremendously in his chest, so much so that he could practically feel them pumping the blood into his working erection, fueling it for the moment of release. He was also intently aware of the sounds of his mate, paying careful mind to the amount of force he used and the sounds it elicited from her. 

Beyond that and the sound of the rain beating the portals to his right side across the small room, he was only vaguely aware of a light rap on the door to the dwelling; vaguely aware, and mostly uncaring, about the sound of the door opening and of the foot falls of K’Shai’s companions in the apartment. 

It mattered not to him. She was his and it would be known, by his scent all over her inside and out and by direct observation if need be, for he was being careful to leave her with no physical injuries from the experience to serve as visual markers of his conquest. K’Shai, with her eyes shut, her body heaving in synch with his and her hands stroking his muscles, was too bound in ecstasy to notice or care about anything beyond the bed. 

He wanted to keep her sustained in such a way for hours. He wanted to make her coo and moan and flex her small hands against his arms for as long as she could possibly stand it. He wanted to feel himself penetrating deep inside her, faster and more powerfully each time, until neither of them could breathe properly after the exertion. 

He had succumbed fully to the sensations of her small fingernails dragging across his tough skin, barely leaving a mark, but tingling his body fully none the less. He felt her body shudder and tense and contract with raging orgasm as she reached her fullness and moaned and panted, matching his own chuffing and rumbling purr. 

K’Shai’s thighs tensed against his, her back arched, her body stretched, her fingers tightened just around his upper arms near the elbow, as her thumb dug into one side and her other fingers clamped down on the other side, and her head stretched back under him. Her body bloomed with a surge of heat and her already tight tract suddenly swelled, compressing his ready and pulsating shaft so much it was almost painful as she orgasmed. 

R’chnt’s body could hold back no more. 

The feelings he experienced had lit a fire in him and through a rush of unfamiliar sensations that overwhelmed him, he released his load deep into her, the tiny nodules on his shaft getting decidedly firmer in the moments before orgasm, locking himself into K’Shai for assurance that he would successfully deposit his seeds as deeply as possible, and stimulating a heightened response in the both of them as he pumped a few dozen little forward thrusts during the process.

He huffed deeply once complete and held his position still, remaining inside her until she settled and eased herself back, melting into the bedding below her with a long, low, fully satiated groan as she relaxed from the climax. R’chnt’s body shuddered as he watched hers slink down and stretch loosely. 

She released her grip on his arms and he continued his purring, dropping his tusks to once again grope her bare chest before he retracted out of her once she had wound down enough. K’Shai moaned and winced, feeling the length of him slowly pull fully out of her. 

R’chnt lowered himself over her, pressing his body into hers, but still supporting himself above her so as not to crush her. She caressed him and kissed him, fully relaxed under the overshadowing bulk of his body, warm and soothed by the purr rising from him, the emanations of his body heat and the slowly dissolving throb of his passing orgasm. 

He pulled away from her, tucking in tightly next to her on the sleeping bunk and she immediately pressed herself as close into him as she could, wrapping her arm over his body, feeling his warmth, expressing her contentment and pleasure with a soft, relaxed groan and gentle stroking of his abdomen and hip, before she fell asleep.

He watched her sleep, wrapped up against him, for hours, not daring to move or disturb her until he had to. When he did slip out from under her, she was sleeping so soundly she never flinched. R’chnt gathered up the armor he had strewn throughout the small living accommodations and as he did, he glanced at the pieces once piled on the floor next to the elevated sleeping mat. He suddenly realized he was more relaxed than he had been in a long time, even though he was removed of his armor on the alien world for the first time since he had arrived to it.

Again without rousing her from her clearly much needed rest, R’chnt returned to K’Shai’s side, slipping himself under her small arm, though he remained awake as he reviewed a map of the area that his computer displayed. He assured himself that he and his group, along with the other two packs working in conjunction with his own in the region, had managed to clear the area completely of the vermin they warred against. He had intended to give his group a much needed rest before they headed out again, for all were weary and need of a break. 

He tipped his head to glance at K’Shai again, stroking her bare back and side gently and purred quietly. 

He had already planned to ensure her place amongst his clan, and over the break, he would finalize that necessity to assure that she would have a chance amongst his people if he were to die on this hunt.

He sat in quiet contemplation for hours, until the pre-dawn light began to chase away the darkness and, relaxed in the still and silence with only the sounds of their breathing to focus on, R’chnt also shut his eyes for some sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

She roused from the bed with the brightness of dawn's light filling the room and although R'chnt was usually an extremely light sleeper, he was sound asleep.

She tiptoed in an earnest effort not to wake him, but he stirred with the sound of a beep from his armor that made her jump from the opposite end of the apartment as she surveyed the hallway outside the door. The sound was soft, but in the still silence of the early morning, it echoed like a blaring alarm

R'chnt informed his group of the agenda for the day and stood.

He had barely slept, but it was enough for his needs after such a long day of rest on the last rotation. He had noticed the humans' need to sleep for hours and hours, far longer than any full grown Yautja and K'Shai was no different.

She had slept soundly the entire night, comforted in his arms, without moving.

When he rose and joined her as she made use of the bathroom, with nearly as much eagerness and pleasure as she displayed in orgasm, he smirked in amusement as he watched her and tended to his own needs, though with less vested pleasure.

When she returned to the bed, she retrieved a bottle of water from the stand alongside it and offered him a drink before she sipped from it.

"Do you have any of that jerky?" She asked.

He had come to learn that she called the meat he carried in a satchel jerky, whatever that was, and knew immediately what she was talking about.

The rations of meat were from a large, commonly hunted creature found on all of the worlds in his system. The animal was big enough to feed an entire hunting pack for more than ten rotations and the strips of meat were cured to last for weeks.

K'Shai took a large chunk of the food he offered her and bit into it, immediately shutting her eyes and moaning. Even eating elicited pleasure for her, in addition to urinating and mating.

He watched her in contemplative amusement as she ate the meat and he reached for a canister from his back pack. Her eyes lit up as soon as she heard the click of the top opening and he offered it to her before he took any of his own.

"This," she said, raising the canister slightly after she swallowed several gulps, "is the best stuff I've ever had in my life."

He nodded, accepting the compliment, although he silently thought that there were so many more, far better, experiences he wanted to expose her to if he was given the chance.

He did consider the drink for a moment, though. A'gha fruit had quickly become a staple in his and all the others' diet and K'Shai clearly delighted in the taste of it.

The fruit, eaten whole or juiced, was hearty enough to sustain any body for an indefinite period of time, and with the lack of available hunting prey on the overrun and decimated world, any hunter would be foolish to let his supply of it run too low.

Sitting quietly, he watched her take her fill of the drink once again, his eyes slowly surveying her thin and battered body as she stretched, arching her back and extending her arms, fingers crossed, into the air above her head.

She smiled as she pulled her body back together and caught his gaze shifting over her breasts and down her abdomen, across her thighs and back up while he inhaled deeply, his chest quietly raising and falling.

"What are you thinking?" She asked of him as she watched him watch her.

"I will teach you to hunt, for food." He said, eyeing her thin frame.

K'Shai nodded graciously, but whispered softly, in a playful tone. "Maybe not just yet."

She let her eyes drop from his commanding facial features to the defined muscles of his chest and abdomen, to his thighs and the extension hanging between them. She pulled herself to her knees and palms and crawled close to him, across the bed.

R'chnt clicked softly, piqued by her approach, catching the unmistakable scent her body emitted. It aroused him before she even made contact, but the feel of her hands pressing against his chest and shoulders and stroking his hair made his subtle clicking turn to a not-so-subtle aroused growl.

She leaned into him, wrapped her arms across his wide shoulders and around his neck, tenderly stroking his beaded tresses while she kissed his cheek, pressing her lips along his lower mandible, tracing the powerful line of his strong facial frame back towards his neck, stirring every quill with her tongue as she did.

She felt his body shudder under her touch, like he was forcibly letting go of the constant tension and high alertness, as if it were unnatural and uncomfortable and took a concentrated effort on his part to do so.

He teetered before her, sitting on the edge of the bed like a rock solid statue, swaying between the option of collapsing completely in an oozing heap or continuing on in an apprehensive and rigid display.

She pressed herself into him and helped him make the decision, as she delicately rubbed her hand between his thighs, stroking the skin of his inner thigh lightly enough to provoke him, teasingly enough to leave him wanting more.

He rocked back under her and shifted himself more centered onto the bed, allowing himself to release a deep exhale, forcing his tense body to ease up under her as she groped him.

She leaned forward, pressing her lips onto his body as her hands swayed across the definition of muscles of his abdomen.

His gray skin was firm, more solid feeling than a human body, and although it was textured, her fingers still glided smoothly across it. She brushed her fingertips over old faded scars, feeling the difference in the healed seams versus the undamaged skin around it.

She vaguely thought for a moment about the creatures that had made them, wondering if any of them were more horrific than the nightmarish bugs she had come to know, that he called the kainde amedha, the hard meat.

She leaned over him, tipped her head into his, kissing his cheek again and again while her hands rubbed along his body and groped his stiffening erection.

She felt him immediately, instinctively withdraw for a brief moment, a subtle, but noticeable display as before of his discomfort with being touched there, followed immediately by an equally subtle hint of acceptance.

She stroked him gently until she was sure she had him eased into a state of relaxation.

She moved her lips across his lower left mandible again, allowing the broken edge of the tusk that capped it to whisk across her cheek and under her chin as she pulled back and sat straight atop him, dripping with ready wetness between her thighs as she straddled him.

Only briefly did she also think to remind herself to hear the story of how he broke the strong tusk, before she raised her body off him, shifted her position and gripped the firm mass of his erection in her hands as she lowered her waist onto it, sliding her lubricated tract onto his waiting, equally lubricated shaft.

She slowly lowered herself into place, returning both of her hands to the very top of his hip bones, which she could just feel moving under the powerful muscles and thick skin that covered them, as she settled completely down upon him and he began to match the slow pace of her rocking hips with his own thrusting.

She moaned with delight and panted and tried to stifle higher pitched groans for risk of her voice echoing through the quiet corridors of the apartment building in the early morning hours as he thrust himself into her a little faster each time.

R'chnt's deep rumbling growl filled her ears, and though she stifled her own shrill squeals, she barely even pondered whether or not his voice was echoing anywhere beyond the bedroom; it just did not seem to matter.

He settled into a powerful thrusting pace as his arousal reached its fullest and his growling purr was joined in synch with his working breaths, and matched only by her own groaning and panting as he pumped into her, bouncing her body over his hips with each upward thrust.

K'Shai rocked her hips in time with his movements, tipping her head back and gaping her mouth wide as she shut her eyes and allowed the feeling of his hardness sliding in and out of her to overwhelm her until she held her breath just to focus solely on the sensation.

R'chnt's shaft was lined with small nodules, not too unlike the rippling bubby texture of his skin, only smaller.

As he worked himself back and forth inside her, slipping his full erection completely into her so she could feel the subtle ridges on the tip of his shaft deep in her, and drawing it back out again until the tip was nearly out of her, then pressing it back in again, the small nodules that lined his shaft in a few rows that ended just below the ridged skin of the tip, grew progressively more pronounced as they hardened.

The sensation did not hurt K'Shai, but it did certainly serve to stimulate both of them. As he neared his own climax, K'Shai felt her body surge and tingle from deep within, brought to full raging orgasm that made her eyes loll into the back of her head as he continued his smooth, gliding penetrations before releasing himself into her with a completely satisfied moan accompanied by a series of smaller, faster thrusts, harder than all others as he rumbled with a deep, animalistic sound that added to the vibrations she already felt from within her.

Her body surged to the bones, shuddering in overpowering delight as R'chnt cooed and purred below her, completely relaxed; the tension from his constant state of alert awareness of his surrounding and heightened arousal both slipping away.

It was hours later when they both revived themselves from a deep slumber, R'chnt sleeping more soundly than K'Shai had ever seen him.

She stirred carefully awake, hoping to not disturb him with her movements, as she listened to his deep breathing. He was snoring. At least, the low grumble he produced, which sounded just a few decibels lower than the purr he made during moments of relaxation resembled a snore, she thought.

She watched him for a moment, a thin smile on her face. It was a rare sight to see him so at ease, asleep.

It did not last long. K'Shai barely shifted her legs to sit up on the edge of the bed and R'chnt immediately was up and on his feet, glancing around as though he had heard a battle raging without him.

Unlike K'Shai, who woke slowly and took her time in his company to stretch, inhale deeply and slowly ease away the woozy feelings that followed a good sleep, something she had not experienced in more months than she could recall before meeting R'chnt, he was up from his deep slumber immediately, clear headed, jumping up with alarm and displaying no signs of relaxation. R'chnt was back to full on tension.

K'Shai watched him, a little taken aback by his sudden start, pondering if rigid alarm was simply as natural to him as the skin on his body. He suddenly seemed to realize how much daylight had gotten away from him and was armored up within minutes.

K'Shai snapped in a few pieces of his armor into place, but mostly watched him dress so quickly it did not seem possible to put on all the complex panels and weapons and connect the entire system together as fast as he did.

With the final connections in place that powered the shoulder cannon and firing mechanisms that he could control in three different manners, from his arm gauntlet computer on the left arm, from one bony looking pendant he wore around his neck that, as it turned out, was not bone at all, or from hidden controls inside his helmet which he operated with his tusks in a wildly efficient use of the additional Yautja extremities, the entire armor beeped and lit up, sending a flicker of blue electrical current over his entire body.

For a fraction of a moment he looked like he was completely engulfed in static electricity, or lightening.

The armor pieces itself, K'Shai thought, seemed like they had a life of their own. Indeed, they could respond through a series of hidden switches that were essentially motion activated, giving the appearance that the armor operated under its own free will or through some kind of telepathy.

Even though R'chnt had begun lightly familiarizing her with the functionality of the armor pieces, so she had a vague understanding of how it all worked, it still seemed hard to grasp how his essential hunting necessities, the protective pieces that defended, guided, and provided for him, operated so seamlessly.

Matching his haste, and assuming that R'chnt hurried so because he did not want to leave his group Leaderless for an extended period of time, K'Shai dressed and followed him back out the fire escape window through the living room, and up the grated metal stairs to the roof of the brick building.

She quietly considered the notion that he had gotten so comfortable and relaxed with her he actually let his duties as Leader lapse, even if only for a few hours, which to her did not seem like much. Surely, his group could manage without their Leader for the course of about fourteen hours according to her watch.

Though, she did realize as she stepped onto the roof and found the other eight members of the group mostly spread out keeping watch or talking and eating, that she had never once seen R'chnt return to the ships in orbit for supplies, as she knew others in his group did.

She also had not seen R'chnt leave his group to hunt for food, rather, that task was usually assigned to one of the other hunters. She quietly pondered if he had broken some kind of protocol which would account for his hurried mannerisms upon waking.

She noticed that he tensed up even more as his underlings eyed him. He flared his mandibles just wide enough to indicate that he was on alert.

R'chnt could not help but to swell a bit before his pack as he rejoined them on the roof. He had succumbed to the waves of pure pleasure K'Shai had induced in him and he relaxed next to her, watching her fall asleep after a second round of mating that had both thrilled and eased him, and wore her out.

He did not even recall drifting to sleep himself and when she stirred and awoke him, he could barely believe the single sun of the world had been up long enough it was nearly halfway to its peak of rotation.

He imagined his group would be questioning his whereabouts, not so much his activities, for the scent of his musk when he departed their company the night before would have told them all they needed to know about his intentions, but his lack of return for so many extended hours would no doubt have sent a ripple of curiosity and doubt through them.

They would wonder if perhaps he had succumbed to his injuries to account for his lack of return. Perhaps, he postulated as he hurriedly dressed himself with K'Shai's gentle help, they might think she had beaten him so fully he could no longer move, which given the relaxed feel he had succumbed to, was not too far from the truth.

He knew they would curiously speculate as to what it would be like to mate with the small human.

They were curious about her, but knew their place. Though, K'Shai did not seem to mind at all when the rest of the group displayed their curiosity outwardly.

They knew their place with R'chnt and they knew that contact with her in any manner would result in dismemberment or death, and if there had been any doubt to that, the events of the night she was attacked would settle that matter for both the Yautja group as well as the humans.

K'Shai behaved differently than any female Yautja ever would. She readily welcomed the group's curious questions and tried her best to answer in Yautjan.

Still, R'chnt knew they would assume she was as aggressive in mating as any female, and given his injuries, he imagined that after this length of time, the group would already be mulling over who might be daring, or foolish, enough to make a claim as Leader.

Naturally, that title would fall immediately to W'rsa if there were no other challengers. In the event of R'chnt's death, W'rsa, who had hunted with R'chnt for two centuries and trained with him, would stand to fill his place.

He imagined W'rsa, who was the only other of the group that K'Shai seemed well at ease with, might also make a move for her as well.

He presented himself on the roof top and flared his mandibles as he straightened his back tense enough to add more height to his already formidable frame.

He felt a rush of pride take control and he strode smoothly towards his group, confidently strutting across the roof top, allowing each hunter he approached to take careful note as K'Shai strode readily next to, and just slightly behind him, following his lead.

R'chnt did not often speak of his conquests on the hunting field, or in mating. His scars from both activities would speak for him, and he was equally as proud of them as he was of K'Shai who stood so close to him now.

Though he had known it to happen from time to time, if she was inebriated on c'ntlip enough perhaps, it was normally highly uncommon for a Yautja female to spend any length of time with a male after mating, and certainly not to mate with them again.

Strutting powerfully enough to be even more imposing than normal, R'chnt worked hard at hiding the fact that he was still feeling utterly relaxed and pleasured with lingering satisfaction by the version of mating K'Shai offered him.

His body still tingled with an unrelenting echo of her hands caressing him, gripping his shaft and stroking it, and putting her lips to him as he mounted, covered, and thrust into her. He felt a sense of pride having experienced her as a mate and as he surveyed his group, he could not help but to flare his mandibles and glare at them all, eyeing them for any challenge to his conquest.

K'Shai had wanted him. She laid herself down willingly and through gentle caresses and tender touches, she stimulated him in ways he had never even imagined.

He was wise enough to know that no creature could ever experience all there was in the vastness of the universe to experience, although it was a massive fault of many brash young Yautja who were convinced they already had.

R'chnt silently credited himself with a wealth of experience, having hunting on nearly fifty worlds, more than ten times the number that most other Yautja would even fly by in their lives, let alone hunt upon.

The mere fact that she laid with him not once, but twice, overwhelming him with pleasure each time was something he had never even considered a possible experience.

He watched the group before him now, carefully judging their reactions, to see who might take too keen an interest in her, or question him. They had long since become accustomed to K'Shai, and the rotations past that had led up to this had clued them all in to R'chnt's desires for her as a mate and K'Shai's own reciprocated urging.

The familiarity was a good thing, and it reminded the group that they all had their places and that so did K'Shai, though R'chnt knew he would need to ensure she had a place in his Clan.

He glanced at W'rsa, noticing how his eyes flickered to K'Shai for a little too long before they flicked back to him, and silently considered the chain of events that might occur if he were to be cut down on this hunt.

He had hunted the kainde amedha long enough to know what he was doing, long enough to have developed a sense of cunning around them that others had not, long enough to make risky moves appear easy as he cut the hive queens down on his own, but he was also wise enough to know that when the paya called a warrior to them, there was little choice on the matter.

R'chnt had fully intended to have a long and fruitful life with K'Shai at his side, but he also knew he had to be aware of every possibility. He would handle those arrangements in time soon enough. For now, he turned to K'Shai.

"We shall hunt now." He said simply, loud enough for all to hear.

His brief statement informed the group of his intent while silently telling them they should all wait for his return, and simultaneously combined with his extended arm gesturing her forward down the other fire escape on the far side of the roof, told her she was going with him.

R'chnt moved in behind her, the metal stairwell creaking and wobbling slightly as he stepped onto it.

She found herself looking down the five stories through each consecutive grated metal landing, and wondering if the thing would hold until they got to the bottom. If it did fall, she assumed he could manage to somehow scoop her to safety and climb the building wall instead.

She realized as she did finally touch the sidewalk, that she was almost a little disappointed the fire escape had not collapsed, just so she could see how he would handle it. She watched him descend to the sidewalk behind her, jumping over the railing off the second floor and thumping to the ground powerfully.

Four men, keeping watch around a burning barrel on the corner of the street, about a half a block away locked their eyes on the pair and stopped their conversation mid-sentence as they eyed her and the alien that loomed behind her.

R'chnt growled, evaluating each of the alien males for any display of aggression or challenge, for anyone who might reach for one of the low-powered projectile weapons slung around their sides and take aim, for anyone who might glance to or question K'Shai in a tone he did not approve of.

K'Shai eyed the males only briefly and turned away in silence as R'chnt directed her with a sweeping gesture of his hand. She said nothing as they walked and walked, far out of the edge of town.

Still in a cleared zone, there would be no danger of running into any kainde amedha, R'chnt confirmed with a few clicks on his computer panel. The cleared area was vast enough to provide a safe buffer to allow his group rest, allow some time for himself with K'Shai and also offer up the opportunity to provide her with a little much needed food source hunting.

He had noted that she seemed more to be a scavenger rather than an active hunter when it came to food and resources. Her behaviour as such also accounted for why his group thought of her as some kind of pathetic little animal unable to defend itself when she first had approached them so wary and apprehensive, hunkered down and timid.

He felt a little guilty for having shared that thought of her, and allowed himself to reflect on how she had humbled him from those thoughts with her displays of intelligence, strength, boldness and willingness to trust him.

She followed his lead and direction more sharply and with less hesitation than some of the students he had trained over the years, and had convinced others of her own kind to do the same despite their obvious apprehension.

Now, she did exactly as he explained, stepped as he showed her, listened to every word he said with unwavering attention. She made mistakes, but she was trying, and her desire to do as he said, follow his lead, and ultimately please him, already put her leaps and bounds above most Yautja students.

He had playfully engaged her in some light sparring during other rest breaks. Mostly, he did it to gauge her skills and see what she knew, which he discovered within seconds, was very little when it came to handling weapons, and even less when it came to hand to hand fighting.

Despite having survived for so long on her decimated world, she lacked finesse with even the weak projectile weapons the oomans clung to so dearly. She did slightly better with the plasma caster he had provided her, but the need for her to learn was obvious, and R'chnt was naturally inclined to teach her.

He had learned well on his own hunts, grew wise from his experiences, and many would say that he displayed the natural characteristics of a true Leader and teacher from the beginning.

He had always remained respectful of his own Leader, an attentive student who had quickly learned to keep one eye on the opponent before him and another eye on the situation around him. There was a subtle edge that the better hunters displayed, and R'chnt had learned well, when he was very young and his own hunt Leader had displayed incredible prowess in every action he performed.

When he had accomplished his first chiva and earned the mark of a blooded hunter amongst his Clan, earning his place, he learned a tough lesson that day that taught him the difference between brashness and wisdom, the sometimes cloudy line between bravery and foolishness. It was a lesson he learned well and bore visible evidence of, as a tell-tale reminder.

Although others had always credited him with a mentality geared towards teaching, he refuted the very notion of it for a century until he took on his first student and word spread that R'chnt was now willing to accept his place.

He had taught so many youngsters up through their first chivas and many other accomplished hunters to further their skill, that he had no choice but to realize he was exactly as the others called him.

Now, to teach K'Shai came on an almost instinctive level.

Her heavily lacking skill proved that she needed to learn and learn well. In order to have a place in his Clan, K'Shai would need to be a hunter. For her, there would be no other way and he knew it.

He would teach her all she would need to know, and by the way she mimicked his actions, followed his instructions and tried as hard as she could to do as he taught, he knew she would be a worthy student.

Her injuries and the glimmer of angry fury in her eye that reflected the struggles she had been through and survived were already symbols to him that she had passed the chiva.

Unknown to her, K'Shai had already endured much of the rigors that young Yautja experience before their own blooding hunt to prove they have a place in the Clan, but she had much to learn.

He slowed his pace to a crouched creep and fell silent, gesturing to K'Shai, who tailed him so closely her chin almost bumped into his shoulder armor when he stopped, with only hand signals.

K'Shai looked past the nearly black metallic armor of R'chnt's right shoulder and her eyes quickly settled on a pair of does scouring the ground as they walked, sucking up the overgrown grass of a lawn at the back of a long since abandoned warehouse.

Whenever possible, anyone in her group would hunt, kill, and cook animals. As supplies like living essentials, medicines, and precious food became harder and harder to find in stores they raided, the group quickly found themselves living off a diet of canned goods, and eventually having to ration those so heavily that living in a constant state of malnutrition edging on flat out starvation had become the norm.

Eventually, no animal, if unimpregnanted with a seed of the Hellspawn itself, was off the menu.

K'Shai briefly thought back to the first time squirrel was offered up for her to eat, like a kabob, blackened on a stick over a campfire, and she nearly vomited at the notion.

Eventually, squirrel and pigeon became something like a delicacy that everyone savored, and were only overshadowed by the even rarer fine dining that consisted of rabbit, raccoon, or possum.

Once, during the winter, a huge protest from the group arose when a stray dog was recovered, but even those who voiced their most profound objections still allowed hunger to override their standings when they smelled its meat cooking.

It was a lucky time another outing that the group found, of all things, a lone angus steer idling happily near the ghostly remnants of a traffic jam on a highway. It seemed like some kind of ironic shame in a way to kill the thing, but it was a lucky break, especially since it did not have a gestating alien larvae in it.

But deer; K'Shai had not seen deer in more months than she could recall. The group did once spot an elk running down a street; no doubt a lucky escapee from a zoo.

The witty animal managed to evade its human would-be hunters, though that was near the beginning of the downward spiral of life, and the group was not yet so capable of making kills.

R'chnt hovered in silence, offering no direction, and K'Shai assumed he was holding position to allow her to show him her hunting skills. She immediately reached for the rifle slung over her shoulder and crept alongside R'chnt, who began a low rumble.

"What?" She questioned softly as he put his hand over the barrel of the weapon and forced the tip down towards the ground.

He withdrew a compacted weapon from the back of his armor, one that she did not even realize he had. It was a thin spear that was quickly and silently extended at the press of a button which he showed her.

The weapon was longer than an arrow, but not by much, and certainly nowhere as long as the larger spear R'chnt also carried, which when fully extended was taller than he.

"Hul'tah," he said in a whisper so low she almost would not have heard it if she had not been holding her breath.

She did as he directed and stayed put, watching. He crept like a lion through the brush, stalking his prey.

R'chnt stayed low, well-hidden, downwind as he had told her she should always be. He never even left the tree line; just moved to a position that offered him the best shot and lobbed the thin weapon through the air with precision and ease.

The intended target dropped to the ground while the other animal, spooked by the sudden thud of its companion darted away.

"Ok, that was impressive." She said with a smile as she watched R'chnt hover over his kill and attached a tether around its legs.

"I will teach you. Watch then do." He said simply.

K'Shai patted the rifle at her hip. "I can barely get one with this."

"Too noisy, your weapons. Draws too much attention." R'chnt grumbled, unimpressed. "Silence is a weapon."

"You must stalk silent and kill silent. Leave no traces, K'Shai. You will learn to hunt like Yautja."

He spoke smoothly while he crouched over the deer carcass, wrapping the limbs together slowly, his large hands working easily to secure his kill, but going slow enough to allow K'Shai to see everything he was doing.

Even after the kill, she could not help but notice how he moved with purpose, power, and deadly intent.

When he stood, holding the tie around the legs of the animal with one hand, he guided K'Shai away with the other. They walked on quietly, R'chnt only stopping from time to time to scan the woods.

K'Shai quickly learned to keep a close watch on him and when he stopped to listen, she did the same, although she always had the sense that while she was straining to determine if anything was out there, he already knew.

She followed him as he led her down a street, through an expanse of unkempt lawns that backed up a long abandoned industrial park and out into the woods beyond them where he once again crouched to a halt, this time at the edge of a river where he handed her the very same spear he had used to impale the deer that he placed down on the rocks nearby.

She took the weapon with a curious smile and R'chnt turned his helmeted head onto the river, wading in softly. She followed along and they came to a halt on a flat patch of rocks.

In a moment, R'chnt pointed towards the stream and K'Shai studied it carefully, looking through the surface, past the reflecting sun, and spotted some large fish, carp, idly swimming past.

Following his direction, although admittedly with much reservation and a sense of embarrassment at her inability, K'Shai did her best to curb her frustration and spear the fish. Eventually, after what seemed like hours, her frustration got the best of her.

"Patience, K'Shai." R'chnt barked at her agitated outburst.

"Show me how to do this." She said adamantly.

"I am showing you."

"No, I mean," she emphasized as she pressed the spear towards him. "Like you actually get one."

R'chnt clicked, crouched, and looked over the carcass on the shoreline. "I got that."

K'Shai sighed, feeling a little defeated. He killed a skittish deer from fifty meters and she could barely spear a slow moving fish five feet in front of her. She had half a mind to unsling her rifle and start shooting the fish, but R'chnt's words about utilizing silent weapons echoed in her head and she huffed sharply and tried again, turning towards the water.

She lobbed the spear once again and instead of thudding dully to the bottom of the river for her to retrieve it, it pierced the scaly hide of the large fish she spotted.

"Aha!" She howled in amazed victory and turned to R'chnt with a brimming smile.

"Good, K'Shai, good." R"chnt approved. "Now, do it again."

She retrieved her kill and smirked, feeling as though it was merely a lucky break that took half the afternoon to achieve, but she turned back to it once again and in a few minutes, had speared another carp, followed by a third, then fourth.

"Ok!" She said excitedly, "I think I am getting the hang of this. It's kind of fun."

He stood and dipped his head, bowing his biohelmet to her approvingly, then clamped a powerful hand on her shoulder and directed her and her kills for the day, back to the shore.

She followed along with him back through the woods as the late afternoon sun slung lower and lower in the sky. R'chnt consistently scanned the area, stopping from time to time to focus his senses, and each time he did, K'Shai tried her best to try to perceive anything around them. On the third time he halted, he glanced down to her, turning the sleek metal cheeks of his biohelmet her direction.

"What are you aware of right now?"

She stopped and contemplated her surroundings. She took in a deep breath and held it, straining her ears to hear anything she could past the rustling of leaves of the trees above her.

"I hear birds." She said with attentiveness. "I hear the wind rustling the leaves, and I think maybe I hear voices echoing. I know we're close to the camp. I smell the fish and the blood of the deer."

"What are you aware of?" She asked, looking up at the helmeted head towering two feet above her own.

"Eight birds, two small ground animals, two ooman males there," he pointed towards a location behind K'Shai, "three more there," he added pointing in the direction they were heading, "all out of sight, but near enough to be smelled and heard. Many scents in the air," he indicated another direction, "and…" he paused and turned to look at her.

"What?" She said quickly.

He brushed her face gently with two fingers and a quiet clicking sound began to emanate from under the helmet.

K'Shai felt her body shudder as he stepped in tightly to her and she shut her eyes, tipping her head into his hand. She reached her own hand up and caressed his fingers and palm against her skin.

R'chnt's body pressed so closely to hers that the little bone necklaces that draped down his chest bumped into her head. His clicking turned into a familiar purring sound as he reached towards her with his free hand and lifted her off her feet.

K'Shai gasped in excited anticipation and pressed her head against the side of his helmet. He tipped his head back and she kissed under his jaw, her hands stroking the bare areas his chest armor did not cover as R'chnt backed her up against a tree.

"Now I smell something." She whispered with a soft moan between pressing her lips to him. "It smells sweet… a bit… musky."

"Dai-Shui," he said softly.

"Die-she", she repeated in a poor attempt to mimic Yautja infliction.

"Smells so good," K'Shai mumbled through a trembling breath as R'chnt slid his hand off her face, down her chest and lightly dragged his claws over the waistline of her jeans.

He had caught her scent in the air, mixed in with the other scents of the alien world, from the sap in the trees to the blood of the beast he dragged behind him and the stench of the ooman males carried on the wind as well.

Her scent gripped his attention the most and as he became aware of his body's own musk building, he could not help but wonder if K'Shai was even aware that she smelled like she was in a constant state of mating readiness, enough to drive his own body into a state of activity he barely even achieved during mating seasons.

K'Shai kissed him and ran her hands along his body, sliding her fingers under his own armor belt just the same as he had slid his own under the restrictive garments she wore around her waist.

R'chnt's subtle purr amplified and was overpowered with a distinctly aroused growl as K'Shai's voice lifted in excitement, the scent of her body lingering into him, thrilling him.

He put her down as she indicated and with eager haste, they both were quickly devoid of their lower coverings. K'Shai removed her upper garments quickly, with a raspy breath as R'chnt lifted her once again, one hand gripping her under each of her thighs as he positioned himself between her spread knees.

She wrapped her calves around his hips, her heels dangling behind his buttocks as he pressed into her, erection full, hard, dripping.

Her back was supported against a tree and she moaned hoarsely and deeply as she felt him penetrate her, slowly and smoothly at first, allowing her to adjust to the angle and feel, then deeper again and again, faster and harder with each forward movement of his hips as he emitted a low, steady rumble, accented by the occasional loud snarl between his own gasping breaths.

Mating with her was like nothing he had ever even imagined experiencing. Her soft skin against his thick and weathered body soothed him. Her small frame against his large bulk willingly and readily accepted his dominance without question.

The scent of her aroused state filling his nasal passages and the sounds of her moaning as she submitted to the pleasures he put in her, tingled and aroused his body in ways he had never felt before.

K'Shai tipped her head back and huffed in time with the rhythym of his thrusts, feeling him press deeper and deeper into her with each forward shift of his hips.

He suspended her easily, thrusting himself up into her with the familiar deep, rumbling growl deep within his chest that K'Shai had quickly heard was a sound he only made when he was aroused for pleasure.

She gripped her hands over his powerful forearms, clinging to the armor that protected them as every muscle in her own body flexed with each panting breath.

Every action he did, K'Shai knew, from something as simple as tethering a line around the legs of his kill, to the way he moved in his noticeably stalking and calculating way, was done with purpose, control, and commanding power so smoothly executed it seemed to be chiseled into every fiber of his body.

His confidence and dominance reassured her; it was reliable, true, and unquestionable. She knew how many different ways he could have killed her at any point over the entire stretch of the last seven months, and in the process she learned his immeasurable self-control.

She knew as he growled like a wild beast, pumping furiously into her, riled up into the heated throws of pure pleasure as his body fueled him into a sort of unstoppable need to complete the event, that he still maintained his composure and his control on some level.

It was so fully engrained into him that it came just as naturally to him as the guttural growls that he filled her ears with. He held her firmly, but never even so tight as to cause a sore muscle, let alone actually scratch or puncture her skin with his talons. He would caress or grab her head, but never so harshly as to damage her in any way.

As he filled her with the result of his delight, she moaned and gasped, her own body surging into powerful orgasm, spurred on by the scent of his musk, the heat of his body, and the hot fluid that filled her.

She slouched her back loosely against the tree, taking deep breath after deep breath, her eyelids dangling half closed, her lips relaxed into a softness that reflected her ecstasy, her fingers slowly groping his forearm gauntlets, his elbows above them, his powerful biceps, flexed and rigid from supporting her, his shoulders and his chest where she rested her palms over his immensely heated pectoral muscles.

R'chnt growled, overcome with a wave of pleasure as he felt K'Shai's soft skin against his.

He supported her from underneath with both hands, and though the rush of euphoric ecstasy that surged into him charged him into an aroused state of tension, he remained highly aware of just how much pressure he used against her.

He did not want to damage her, but he very much wanted to have her rip his helmet off so he could sink his tusks into her exposed shoulder as the final throws of his arousal filled his body with a rippling tide.

He resisted one urge in exchange for the overpowering sensation of another one and remained motionless for a few long moments afterwards, holding her, shifting his body closer to her, his multi-tonal growl turning into a gentle purr that he could not ever recall sharing with a female, before he finally eased himself out of her to her wincing and gasped moans.

In short order, they returned to the camp before the evening light had completely left the sky, and K'Shai proudly offered up the results of her first spear-fishing lesson to her group, along with a quartered cut of the deer R'chnt had killed.

He sliced it up before he delivered it back to his group and she thanked him for being willing to oblige her request, halfway suspecting there was little he would not do for her when properly rewarded.

Lewis, Carlos and the others had not had a true meal in weeks. They had found a valuable stock of canned vegetables, soups, and even a few cans of pasta complete with meatballs during a lucky raiding run three weeks earlier, but fresh meat was a delight few and far between, and while the Yautja never shared their kills before, K'Shai had always at the very least stashed away a healthy portion of whatever meat of the day they had and a'gha slices for the children.

The group eyed her in shock, seeing her approach with a spear full of fish, and a nearly seven and half foot tall Yautja looming just feet behind her, carrying a bleeding deer carcass over one shoulder and a freshly dismembered roast section and hind limb in the other hand, but their astonishment soon turned to delight upon the realization that she was delivering the food to them.

R'chnt dropped the meat in a rather undignified fashion on the ground and growled something in his native tongue, which K'Shai nodded an acknowledgement of.

"Aren't you going to stay for some?" Lewis asked as K'Shai turned to walk away after a short while, having surrendered the spoils of her hunt to them with a quick synopsis of how she had spent her day.

"No." She said with a simple smile and glanced her eyes in the direction of the Yautja group, far above them on the roof of the apartment building.

She had her share of venison in the company of R'chnt, tucked so close into his side that he encompassed her with his arm as he ate until she began to doze off, secure and warm in the crook of his arm.

When she awoke sometime in the early morning hours, she was in her bed in the apartment she had commandeered.

She did not remember getting there, but she eyed her surroundings quickly, realizing that R'chnt was sitting on the foot of the bed, biohelmet on, pressing buttons on his left computer panel, taking readings, or scanning maps of the area, perhaps sending a communication, she did not know; his computer panel could perform a multitude of functions and was in many ways, the life and the death of the hunter.

He clicked loudly, the sound echoing out under the metal head ware and reverberating in the quiet apartment.

It was an unusual and intimidating enough sound to make anyone suddenly tense in agitation and fear upon hearing it, but K'Shai was slowly beginning to distinguish the slight tonal differences in the clicking sounds that the Yautja made.

Some of the sounds were produced in the throat, like an agitated gurgling, while some clicking noises were made by directly tapping the tusks of the mandibles together. Different sized mandibles created different sounds.

A throaty clicking was likely to be followed by a deadly blow, while a tusk clicking was a sound of contentment, concentration, or curiosity. R'chnt's tusks made a deep clicking, like a woodpecker strumming at a tree that was not quite dead, and as he turned towards her, acknowledging that she had stirred, he removed his helmet and spread his tusks into a smile, ending the chittering sound.

He torqued his upper body towards her as she crawled over to him and rested one hand on his back, between his shoulders, feeling the cold hard metal plating that protected him as she brushed her hand under his thick, fleshy hair.

The Yautja did not sleep anywhere near as often as a human, but K'Shai was grateful that he remained with her keeping watch over her while she got some rest.

Without a word spoken, for Yautja also preferred less verbal communication in exchange for something more subtle and ethereal, R'chnt projected his thought process through a gentle caress of her cheek and the immediate accompaniment of a quiet purr.

K'Shai moaned quietly through lips pressed into a gentle smile and leaned into him, feeling the heat rising from his body along with the scent of his musk as both amplified in union with the sound he made. She slid her hands across his chest; she pressed her lips into his cheek.

She ran her tongue along his quills, eliciting a sharply aroused growl before one hand slid its way down his abdomen and between his legs.

R'chnt tingled and crested, feeling her touch and her rising scent mixing with his own, broadcasting what seemed like her almost constant state of readiness for mating.

He only idly wondered if this was a quality all ooman females possessed, though he never noticed it before if they did, so he logically calculated that it was a reaction he spurred in her.

He allowed his purr to deepen and reverberate through his body, feeling the effects of it down to his toes and noting that this was part of his reaction she spurred in him. He unbuckled his chest armor and removed his gauntlets, then removed his lower leg bracers as K'Shai stripped herself free of her own layers before he stood.

She knelt on the edge of the bed as he stood beside it, pressing the palms of her hands onto his lower abdomen and rubbing them down over his hip bones as R'chnt growled with arousal and readiness and removed his belt.

His deep voice rumbled as she stroked him, feeling the throbbing erection in his hands growing quickly to full hardness. K'Shai stretched up her body as tall as she could make it, extended her arms, elbows straight, and laced her fingers around the back of his neck as she leaned into his body.

R'chnt stepped in closer to her as she teetered on her knees at the edge of the bed, hanging off of his neck with most of her balance before she pulled herself back and turned away from him.

On her knees, intended to crawl teasingly away from him to center herself on the bed, K'Shai dripped with tingling readiness and R'chnt's growl immediately amplified as he grabbed hold of her hips and stopped her motion.

K'Shai gasped and squealed, feeling R'chnt's full erection find its way to her wet opening and enter.

The sensation of pressure and massage as he worked his way, attentively and carefully, into her down to the base of his skin, made her body quiver, tense, flex, soften, and throb again and again in rhythm to the action of his hips pressing forward and sliding backwards as he glided through her, pressing his large self into her harder and harder each time, forcing her to expand to accommodate him.

R'chnt leaned over her body as he thrust himself into her, his eyes closing with pure satisfaction in response to the sensation of her tight, swelling tract dripping lubricating juices over his rod as she gasped and squealed, paralyzed in pleasure.

K'Shai could feel his tusks tickling the back of her neck, dragging softly along her shoulders, tracing the edge of her body as his hot breath huffed onto her skin in time with his pounding action. There was nothing she could, or wanted to, do other than remain on her knees before him, taking pleasure in his enjoyment of her, allowing every little sensation of the feel of him sliding in and out, the heat of his body, the sounds he made, the feel of his testicles slapping against her as he worked, to overwhelm her until she rolled her eyes into the back of her head as a surge of orgasm caused her to actively stifle a hoarse bellow.

Immediately, R'chnt joined her in harmony, making no attempts to stifle his own guttural bellow as his body built pressure in a few final thrusts and exploded with a sensation powerful enough to almost make him consider collapsing on top of her.

He shifted his balance and rounded his body over her, leaving himself deep inside her as they both gasped and panted, taking a few moments to catch their breath before he slowly withdrew himself free of her throbbing, hot, swollen tract as she raised her voice in a high pitched moan in response to the sensation.

K'Shai did exactly what he had wanted to as well, and dropped to the bed with a satisfied huff. She rolled onto her back and faced him, smiling as she shut her eyes and stretched her body, arcing from her toes to her hands, which she folded behind her head and shifted her elbows into the air as her back raised off the blankets.

R'chnt purred deeply, loudly, a thoroughly pleasured reverberation that soon lulled the both of them to sleep as the sun barely peeked over the distant horizon.

Not neglecting her body's needs, the daily ritual upon stirring for the day meant that K'Shai made her way out of the bed to the bathroom.

She tried, again, to silently slip away from her peacefully sleeping mate, and although she was sure she had not made a sound, she assumed he must have felt the shift of her weight, perhaps the loss of her body heat against his, because he was up instantaneously, on his feet, stiff, straight, and glancing around warily.

"I was trying not to wake you," she said with a soft giggle, her voice in a near whisper.

R'chnt clicked thoughtfully, said nothing, but followed along with her, his relaxation clearly reflected in the dangling unit between his legs, K'Shai noticed with a pleased smile.

She felt sore, stiff, no doubt perhaps a bit bruised in deep internal places that were not accustomed to such activities. She was still adjusting to him, and she certainly did not blame him for any discomfort she felt. The pleasure he elicited in her overrode the uncomfortable side effects anyway.

She watched him tend to his own needs after her, before she splashed some water on her face, giving herself a quick rinse with a gallon jug of boiled down rain water she kept on the bathroom sink, her shower in a bottle.

She patted her face dry with a clean towel and eyed R'chnt as he started to move past her, then stopped directly behind her and reached around her body, embracing her tightly with her back in his abdomen.

Once again she heard his purr build through his chest and rattle its way out of his body, like it seeped through his skin and into hers. It was a soothing sound, eliciting a sort of content peace and calm in the quiet morning air as R'chnt indicated his arousal to her by firming himself up into her back.

K'Shai moaned quietly through pressed lips and turned slowly around to face him, smiling up at him as she gazed to him and took in a long, deep breath and contemplated her next move. He was ready, she was sore.

He purred deeply, the pitch dropping into a sensation that could be felt more than a sound to be heard as his musk built in conjunction. She stroked his body, ran her hands over the powerful muscle mass that covered his ribs, and traced them down his comparatively slender hips and down his thighs.

"Come here," she said in a whisper and slid laterally to the toilet, popping the lid closed as she sat down upon it in a straddle. "Sometimes, humans have other ways of pleasing each other. Let me show you."

R'chnt followed her a half a step sideways and stood before her as she lowered herself in front him. He stiffened, bristling slightly with a hint of reservation, which clearly, he thought, K'Shai picked up on, since she assured him her intention was to please.

Her position allowed her to be at the perfect height for her needs. She was uncertain exactly of what the best process was for such an action she intended to perform, having absolutely no experience in such things.

R'chnt seemed to feed off her uncertainty and much to her surprise, he braced up, even withdrew slightly. She took a deep, long, slow breath and spoke again in a whisper.

"Put your hands on the wall."

He hesitated for a moment at her request, his uncertainty claiming charge of his actions. It was a response he was not accustomed to, and for whatever reason he could not quite understand, K'Shai seemed to elicit it in him frequently.

What pleasure she intended, he could not even begin to comprehend, but he had learned through months of ever-growing contact with her, that K'Shai would not intentionally harm him. He leaned forward, resting his palms on the wall behind her head as she had indicated.

She leaned into him, gently cupping her hands around his shaft as she opened her jaw. R'chnt's body thrilled and surged in reaction to the sensation of her fleshy, moist, and warm lips wrapping around the tip of shaft.

He immediately tensed, agitated but overwhelmed with feelings he could not quite place, having absolutely no base of reference for. She pressed her lips closed, moved her mouth back and forth along his shaft, and grappled the base of him with both hands as his claws tightened and dug into the weak wall supporting him, leaving marks.

R'chnt gasped a terse breath, held it, and suspended his rumbling growl as he held motionless, in shock and surprise. He locked his body rigid, and K'Shai huffed through her nostrils, her mouth currently occupied.

She paused delicately, wondering if what she was doing pleasured him at all, or if she was doing something incorrectly, then she suddenly felt her heart to begin to race as the realization that she was quite possibly frightening him dawned on her.

She was used to see him rigid, tense, alert, but he always had a way of sort of oozing into her company and relaxing. Now, he simply held utterly motionless, more tense than she had ever seen him, and so quiet it was almost alarming.

She thought of stopping. She was told by many friends throughout high school that the boys loved this sort of thing, but as the giant, deadly, fearsome warrior alien that loomed over her braced in almost fearful tension while he audibly dug holes into the wall with the bony claws that capped his fingers, she had the not-so-vague idea that perhaps this was definitely not a pleasuring experience for him.

She did suddenly think of how his reaction to the first time she put her hands on him caused a similar response; he withdrew as if unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the sensation. He did relax into the feelings of her hands on him rather quickly, but as the seconds ticked by now, she saw no sign of him giving him.

He felt rather like he was being held prisoner, wanting to pull away, but somehow forcing himself to stand his ground because he was trying to cater to her desires, while she worriedly presumed she was not meeting his.

Just as quickly as the notion to stop popped into her mind, during the fraction of a second that she nervously analyzed her own actions and his reactions and flickered through her recent experiences with him in her head, R'chnt growled deeply and his body lurched. He finally relaxed, exhaling almost a breath of relief.

Though his grip on the now damaged wall tightened up and she heard his claws crack more drywall, it did not feel to her like a nervous response. His body shuddered and all at once, he eased into a state of pleasured suppleness, his body arcing over K'Shai, repositioning slightly so she could achieve a better angle and his deep growl rumbled away with vigor.

Spurred on his sudden change of apparent interest, K'Shai moaned, and amplified her efforts, working her tongue and lips smoothly back and forth, applying and releasing pressure in waves as she did so, and moving his loose skin easily over the stiffened cartilage under it as she listened to R'chnt's heaving breaths above her.

Within moments, R'chnt shifted again and released one hand from the crumbling pale blue drywall. He pressed his hips forward, changing vocalizations from a deep rumbling growl, to a loud clicking back to a gurgling groan in between his own huffing breaths as he lowered one hand to her hair.

R'chnt's fingers eased up against her skull, forcing all of his aroused tension to be directed to his hand still on the bathroom wall, which crumbled a bit more under the pressure. With his hand on her head, he guided his fingers smoothly around, lightly gripping her long pony-tailed hair between his thumb and index fingers.

K'Shai could feel the nodules on his shaft begin to harden, she could feel that his tension had fully turned from apprehensiveness to completely aroused. While the parts her mouth and hands encompassed were stiff, the rest of R'chnt suddenly began to feel as though it was melting.

He swayed over her, crooning a rumble like nothing else she had ever heard him make. She was not in a position to notice that he had shut his eyes and bowed his head until it slung so low his tusks were dangling almost into her hair.

R'chnt's body throbbed and whirred in entirely new ways as he entered into an almost trance-like state. His mind had completely stopped functioning.

He stopped trying to figure out how K'Shai was able to perform such an action, or what possible reason there was for her species to even imagine doing something like that; it did not matter.

The pleasurable sensations she elicited by sucking on him and moving her tongue around him, stimulating his hardening skin, had succeeded in evacuating all possible upper brain functions out of his head. He succumbed to an instinctual need to build up, then release the wave of pressure in his rod.

He pumped his hips forward slowly, pushing himself a little further into her, judging the best he could just how much she could take and what her reaction might be. In response, K'Shai tightened her grip on the base of his shaft, her fingers tickling his large scrotum, which drove him into further pleasure and pushed him into the state of za'nyuk-de.

K'Shai felt the transition in R'chnt. His slow and steady, almost exploratory thrusts as he swayed his hips suddenly turned dramatic and powerful. She felt the same thing from him when he reached a certain point during mating and as he pressed himself between her lips, the sensation almost overpowered her.

He began a frenzy of pumping into her, one hand carefully gripped around her head, holding her pony tail, applying pressure, but even though in one sense he had lost some control and composure, he still maintained enough self-awareness to know how much force he used on her. He torqued his fingers around her long black hair, pulling slightly, but causing no discomfort.

His growl rumbled loudly and he sped up his thrusts as though driven by pure instinctual urging to do so. Her nose filled with his scent and her ears with his deep vocalizations.

Her mouth quickly filled with warm juices that flowed powerfully forth from him like a volcano eruption, the taste a little bitter but also slightly sweet. She swallowed what she could, and what was too much overran her lips and dripped down her chin onto her abdomen.

R'chnt, bellowing a muffled howl somewhere between a roar and a purr, extracted himself slowly, spurting continued flow across her chest and onto her thighs before he did something that K'Shai was not only shocked by, but quite absolutely certain was not something he would ever have done in anyone else's company.

She almost could not believe what she witnessed, and if she did not know that it was from a completely overwhelmed sense of pleasure, she would have almost felt bad for him.

He withdrew and managed to slide one foot barely half a step backwards before she spotted his body trembling as he released his grip from both her hair and the wall. He was shaking, vocalizing a guttural sound between ragged breaths and then suddenly, her lower viewpoint allowing her to see it clearly, his knees buckled and he dropped to the ground in a simmering heap.

He leaned up against the opposite wall, shut his eyes, and his skin rippled as his trembling muscles underneath flexed and spasmed.

She pressed her lips together, swallowing again, watching him with barely contained amusement before she stood, cleaned herself up with her shower in a bottle and moved in against him on the floor.

R'chnt lurched towards her, lowering his head into a state of total submission, and pressed the bony ridges along the edge of his skull where his fleshy warm tresses grew from, into her chest. She wrapped her arms around him and listened to him breath, embracing him, shutting her eyes as she rested her chin against his head, ignoring being softly jabbed under her jaw by the spiny horns that protruded from his huge crested head.

They sat together for some time in silence, with only the conjoined sounds of their hearts and their shared body heat to soothe them as R'chnt quelled his breathing and fell quiet in her grasp.

When he finally moved, it seemed his strength had returned and K'Shai released him and they both stood and returned to their pile of clothing and armor still on the bedroom floor, R'chnt's hand gently clapped over her shoulder.


	3. Chapter 3

He moved like pure, raw power. Every step he took, every action he performed, full of purpose and control and direction. K'Shai watched R'chnt as he led her through city streets, then through empty and long abandoned subdivisions, until they reached sprawling overgrown fields that led into woods.

He was acutely aware of everything around him, so much more than she could possibly perceive. Even without his helmet on, he was fully capable of using his highly developed senses of smell and hearing, along with visual capabilities that allowed him to see threats hidden behind solid objects and walls. His helmet and computerized technology only amplified what R'chnt was naturally capable of.

She stalked carefully behind him, listening attentively whenever he offered up a bit of direction or guidance, telling her anything from his awareness of his environment to how she should move and step and think when on a hunt.

She could not help but to feel like there was no "when" she was on a hunt, because the way he acted and moved and educated her, it seemed like he always was on the hunt, and thus, she was too. She could not imagine there was a difference in his mannerisms when he was on a hunt versus when he was not, except for the moments he allowed himself to relax when he was with her.

Right now, technically, he was not on a hunt yet he moved gracefully, gliding through the woods they had entered with stealth and certainty, constantly surveying their surroundings, his alertness and wariness never fading. She did her best to mimic him, to hold her breath and listen more closely whenever he stopped to evaluate a specific location, but she was quite certain it was simply not in her nature or capabilities to learn to maneuver and absorb her surroundings the way he did, although he did not stop instructing her on how.

Their round-a-bout path had taken them directly back to the very same river she had gotten her first spear fishing lesson in yesterday.

K'Shai had not even realized that he was taking her to the same spot until the river came into view. He navigated her around an entirely different route with more familiarity than she could have managed with active GPS in her hand.

She swallowed and sighed in reservation, realizing that he probably knew far more about her world than she did; knowing full well he had hunted on Earth many times.

He led her to the water and instructed her again, guiding her on the use of the spear over and over, for what seemed like hours to K'Shai. She was exasperated, frustrated, and yet he seemed perfectly content, patiently crouched, barely moving beside her.

She looked him over, one of the few times she stood taller than he, although even crouched next to her as he was, his head still reached above her elbows. She smiled softly as she surveyed him.

"Hul'tin-de, K'Shai!" He reminded her. Focus!

"Sei-i, ki'ha n'tu." She assured him she was.

R'chnt chortled under his biohelmet, "'en l-teel."

K'Shai pressed her lips together and tried to stifle a giggle at his reminder that her focus was to be placed on the fish.

It was the same river, the same rock plateau, and only slightly different carp than the ones she successfully speared yesterday. R'chnt had edged himself so tightly close to her, crouched next to her that his shoulder was brushing against her backside in a distracting manner.

She was sure he was doing quite on purpose. He was all business when it came to his lessons, though even despite his helmet on, she thought he was just bored enough to cause a little mischief.

When she raised the spear and began the downward lob the way he had shown her, his hand came completely up against her back, brushing between her butt cheeks before landing lightly on the small of her back. She dropped the spear in the water and sighed an amused bark.

"What was that for!?"

"eilk-Yautjan," R'chnt corrected her smoothly, reminding her to use the new language she was also learning.

"Th'lu-hul'tin-de," he grunted. I told you to concentrate.

She jumped off the rock yet again and retrieved the spear. The water, in the early November air, was frigid, and her shoes and socks were soaked.

She returned to the rock brushing off a flush of déjà vu from yesterday's spear-fishing calamity that had sent her into the water so many times she had the mind to just catch the carp or shoot them with her rifle.

By the end of her first adventure, she felt like she was getting a feel for the alien weapon, the technique he showed her, and the force needed to pierce the meaty fish, and she had already spent enough time today struggling to make a kill that she realized she somehow had apparently forgotten everything she learned the day before.

R'chnt stood and moved in tightly behind her, resting one hand on her hip, and guiding her other hand on the proper way to hold the spear once again.

His naturally heated body, which operated at a much higher temperature than hers, immediately soothed her prickled skin and she leaned backwards into him, accepting his warmth as well as his guidance, spurring him to issue a correction again.

"Hul'tin-de, K'Shai."

His voice echoed with patient annoyance, a playful tone knowing full well what he was accomplishing with the close contact yet still striving to make for an educational session.

He directed her again, chortling a bit in amusement as she lobbed the spear again and it thudded uselessly to the rocky riverbed.

She retrieved yet again, and returned to the rock, spying another fish in passing and tried again. Again she retrieved the spear and tried again and yet again introduced water into her shoes for no reason.

"Ok! What…" she started and R'chnt cut her off.

"K'Shai, eilk-Yautjan."

R'chnt spoke English well enough to have a capable conversation with her. She had been amazed to discover that he also spoke some significant amounts of French, Spanish, and words of three other languages she did not recognize, although he assured her they were spoken languages of his world.

She had no reason to question that, but yet could not help wonder exactly what region the languages were from, or in fact, what era, given that he was well over four-hundred years old by the Earth calendar.

Despite his extensive abilities to speak foreign languages, there was only one language he preferred to speak and he reminded her again to pay attention to her lessons and speak as he taught her.

Whenever she got hung up on a word, she would speak her mind in English and he would, if he was able, translate the correct Yautjan word to match her intention.

The Yautjan language was fairly simple as far as actual vocabulary, but the pronunciations and remembering word order and differences in tone and infliction or varying pronunciations depending on if she was speaking to, or about, a male or female was difficult.

Certain sounds were made on exhalation, and others were made on inspiration, and the difference mattered, which was a concept that K'Shai had a hard time with. Likewise, many sounds included ticking, gurgling, and trilling of the Yautja vocal cords, simply were not possible for K'Shai to make.

The language did not have a lot of redundancy. There were no multiple different words that all meant the same thing. There was no real slang that she knew of, only a few phrases that could be deemed slang.

The Yautjan language was universal, too. He informed her of the confusing nature of the human race, to speak so many different languages, and that was when he thought there were only a handful.

When she had told him there were dozens of different languages spoken on Earth, even hundreds, she was not even sure, R'chnt stared at her in amazement, questioning how any human could possibly communicate with another given the complexity and diversity of the languages.

The Yautja language was full of simple and concise vocabulary that the entire species shared. It was sprawling and cryptic in the written form, and frustrating to pronounce, but yet still it its own way, it was simplistic.

Much of Yautjan communication relied on body language and scent, which R'chnt said was less confusing and never lied.

R'chnt was a keen and capable student when he got English lessons from her, hearing a word once, maybe twice, and not only committing it to memory immediately, but also able to pronounce it correctly.

Like K'Shai who struggled to make certain sounds in his language, he lacked the humans' ability to emphasize inflictions and syllables in order to make subtle differences in pronunciation, but he learned at a nearly photographic-memory pace.

When he was teaching her, he insisted she work her way through his language, however slowly or badly pronounced that she must.

He remained patient with her, never letting his temper to flare or cancel lesson plans because he wasn't getting anywhere. He simply held quiet and still, displaying his awesome ability to turn into a statue and wait for her to work things out on her own or ask for help.

"Su'thin ki'nyh-ko," she questioned again, unable to make the proper inflictions in the Yautja tongue to indicate a question, but R'chnt understood all the same.

What am I doing wrong?

He clicked his mandibles together for a moment, making a dull drilling sound before he responded.

"Th-kha'te." He said simply.

She sighed deeply and steadied herself. He was right. She was rushing.

She lost her focus because of his proximity to her. He was toying with her senses quite purposefully, exactly to distract her, and she had completely lost the ability to retain what she had learned the day before.

She felt embarrassed and could not help but to think how the mighty towering hunter hovering behind her must have thought her such a fool, struggling with something as ridiculous to him as spear fishing, when she had seen him spear and kill a kainde amedha queen by clinging to her back and puncturing the base of her skull.

She returned her focus on the fish and the task at hand, and forced his utterly pleasing musky scent out of her mind. She quelled the stimulated arousal in her body and channeled her focus back to the tip of her spear.

She raised it again and took careful study of the fish slowly easing by, just under the rippling surface as the afternoon sun glimmered across it in shimmery bursts.

She listened to the water whisking by the rocky plateau, she felt it brush past her soaking wet shoes as it ran over the surface where she stood. She listened to the cool autumn breeze blow the orange leaves off the nearby trees while a few birds chirped happily oblivious to the destruction of the world around them.

She felt her skin prickle into goose bumps in protest to the soaking cold. She felt her own heart beating and in the still moment, she was sure she could hear R'chnt's hearts beating smoothly and powerfully in his own chest a few inches behind her head. She lobbed the spear again as he had shown and it sailed smoothly down into a fish.

Brimming, she turned to him and he simply nodded his sleekly helmeted head, crouched back down and waited for her retrieve her kill and do it again.

"Gkei'moun," he said finally after the lesson ended with eight fish on the short spear.

K'Shai beamed proudly at R'chnt as they waded through the water and returned to the shoreline to head back to camp as the afternoon cleared into evening and the winds carried in imminent rain.

"Gkei'moun," K'Shai agreed. Simple.

He extended his clawed hands towards her once at the shoreline and traced his large fingertips along her fine chin, tickling her neck with his talons as he stroked her delicately and moved against her, pressing his body so closely into hers. He forced her to the ground just by making a massive, nearly four hundred pound blockade.

He sank down low, crouching over her, an aroused growl emanating from under his helmet and through a flutter of panting breaths and heated touches as she removed her garments. He positioned K'Shai on her knees before him, hands on her hips as he kneeled behind her, solid erection dripping.

He pushed himself into her wet and ready opening, grunting and groaning in pure enjoyment of the sensations he experienced with her.

He was thrilled by her acceptance of his penetrations, and even more so overwhelmed by the pleasure she elicited willingly and readily in him and received from him.

As he inserted himself and withdrew again and again in and out of her, he allowed the feelings to rush through him until they erupted back out of him and into her to their harmonized breathing and moaning.

K'Shai was so very different than the creature he had once mistaken her for, and as he redressed and stood and watched her prepare to move back to the camp herself, he could not help but feel a flush of guilt once again over his arrogant judgment of her.

If she only knew, he would imagine she would consider him quite the fool. He was humbly grateful to the gods for giving him the wisdom to put his arrogance aside.

After returning to camp and providing her fish kills to the group once again, disregarding their shocked looks, K'Shai returned to R'chnt's side for the night.

She was silently grateful he was taking the time to spend a few days in her company. The others in his group all seemed grateful too; both to him for allowing them some much needed rest and to her for keeping him occupied enough to allow them a few extra days' rest.

The smell of their combined pheromones left no questions to any Yautja that he was mating with her. Although while K'Shai was not aware of it, they were rather shocked by the quantity of musk that implied they were mating multiple times.

R'chnt received a few tenderly handled inquiries from W'rsa and G'toun-de, who knew him best and longest, and were at least somewhat comfortable enough in asking with much risk of inciting R'chnt.

He raised his mandibles in amused smiles as they processed the hard to understand concept that K'Shai was most definitely as actively ready and willing to mate as she smelled. He was equally ready at all times, and the others, he knew, were more than just a little jealous, but they hid it well out of respect. Still, he knew not all would.

After a short visit with his group, K'Shai and R'chnt retreated to her private chambers, where she ate some jerky and when she was full and rested enough, he growled his intentions to her and soon laid her on her back, spread leg before him, once, then once more a few hours later, and again before the sun came up the following morning.

She met him with equal vigor each time, showing no signs of disinterest or inability to mate, or loss of desire to please him.

She put her hands, lips, and tongue on all parts of his body and he purred and chuffed and growled in delight as he filled her with his juices over and over while she squealed, moaned, and pleasured him to his very bones.

She rolled over from next to him and sat on the edge of the bed in the morning light and stretched in a long arc of her back as she laced her fingers together and reached for the ceiling.

R'chnt watched her bones glide smoothly under her skin and his eyes followed the curve of her back down to her butt. Her scent was a mixture of multiple satisfied rounds and his own musk and he spread his upper mandibles into a thin smile, pleased by the signal her body would emit.

He briefly thought to last night's quick conversation with the others about K'Shai's very different physiological abilities and desires.

She was willing to bring pleasure and be pleasured as equal to him, and she seemed equally as proud to wear his scent as he was to lay it on her. It was an unfamiliar thing to him, and he very much found adjusting to the scent of her constantly ready state difficult.

Again he reminded himself of something he seemed to keep forgetting; that she was not Yautja. Female Yautja would cycle into a breeding season annually. It was a time when any available male gathered and displayed their interests, fought for the rights to breed, and if they were lucky, succeed.

R'chnt was a proud sire of hundreds of offspring, some of whom he had heard over the centuries had done his bloodlines proud, becoming capable hunters, leaders themselves.

He had survived challenge after challenge from males vying for the same females, to the point where males saw him coming and suddenly decided on a new female to pursue instead. More so, he had successfully survived the challenges his selected females presented to him.

It was expected that any male daring, or foolish, enough to display solid interest in the best of the females would be expected to prove his mettle against her to her satisfaction. The risk of dismemberment, broken bones, and death, was usually enough incentive to keep lesser males out of the breeding pool, but R'chnt had proven himself over and over.

He thoroughly enjoyed any chance to mate that he earned, but as he thought about K'Shai having pleased him in a matter of days more times than he had the opportunity for in the last decade, and without a fight, only wanting to elicit pleasure, he felt himself flare with a protectiveness that he never imagined himself capable or caring enough to display.

He reached for her and moved across the bed to sit next to her, gently placing his hand on the small of her back and she immediately and happily leaned into him, drawing out a purr from his chest as if she could produce it at will.

He did feel content with her and it was obvious to him she found the sound soothing. She tucked her head under his chin and sat quietly in his embrace for a moment, feeling his tusks tickle through her hair, the puffs of his quiet breaths shifting her hair a bit as she shut her eyes and enjoyed the peace of the moment to the sound of his purr.

She started kissing him, touching him in her gentle way, caressing her hands across his chest, down his abdomen, over his thighs, across his groin. He moaned and heaved at the sensation of her fingers stroking his shaft, turning it from flaccid to functioning in seconds. R'chnt growled an enticing welcome and crawled atop her as she leaned back into the middle of the bed.

"What is it?" K'Shai asked him, forming the words in his language more easily.

There was a certain look in his eye, a tone in deep vocalizations, yet again hitting into moods and sounds she had not experienced from him. He purred and chuckled softly, almost reluctant to tell her his thoughts, but the words slipped out as his brain functions dropped to a lower level.

"I was just wondering how long your breeding season lasts."

K'Shai laughed gleefully and wrapped her arms tightly around him, thoroughly amused.

"Humans don't have breeding seasons. I just want to bring you pleasure." She said with a gracious smile.

R'chnt purred deeply, caressing her, his voice quieting as he confirmed beyond a doubt that he treasured her company and would not do anything to harm her. She cooed softly to him and felt him slip himself into her as she inhaled deeply and rolled her eyes closed, tipping her chin towards his cheek and nudging into him while she gently played with his long hair as he pumped steadily and slowly.

She wrapped her hands around his shoulders, caressing him; her body relaxed as he eased himself smoothly back and forth, never increasing his pace. Rather, he was taking careful feel of every inch of her as he worked himself deeply forward then nearly completely out.

His skin soon heated up so much that sweat began to bead. Her fingers slid easily along his back as far as she could reach across his shoulders as she continued to lightly glide them over him.

The pressure built and K'Shai soon became aware of the nodules along his shaft hardening; a process she had quickly come to learn meant not only that he was getting near his peak arousal, but that he would be triggered into a sort of frenzy as he pleasured himself, which to her, seemed rather like the urge was beyond his control, drawing on pure instinctual drive.

It was just then that R'chnt paused in his thrusting. She held still and listened to him exhale a long, slow, deep breath, channeling his inner control as he tucked his body tighter against hers. She tenderly wrapped her arms tighter around him and waited, before he began again, slowly withdrawing himself and smoothly easing back in, overriding the natural urge to mate in a fury as if she might fight him away in the final moments.

K'Shai moaned loudly at the sensation tickling her tract from end to end, the rigid skin along R'chnt's shaft gliding over every detail of her body, eliciting a shock that made her tense her legs and squeeze him tightly while she howled and he joined her in bellowed moan.

"Alright, K'Shai?" He asked is well articulated English, though the lack of inflictions in his voice made the words sound more like a statement than a question.

Unable to even produce a sound, K'Shai nodded vigorously and simply tightened her grip around his shoulders again, gaping her mouth open, trying to catch a breath, only able to moan in his ear as he continued on sliding smoothly back and forth, the hurry and guttural growling gone, replaced by a pleasured and relaxed place, deep purr, and overwhelming sensations.

He withdrew and thrusted in a smooth, easy pace, never rushing. His body glistened with sweat as he worked to forcibly shove away his natural aggressive urges and maintain a consistent, steady pace, letting both their bodies throb in overwhelmed sensation.

K'Shai panted and groaned in wild delight as she felt her body fill with his load while he cooed and huffed, jaws pressed against her temple before they both finally relaxed. Her body was still shaking and trembling as he withdrew after a short rest.

R'chnt had gone almost placid and carefully laid over her, keeping himself in close contact with her, sharing his body heat, but staying elevated enough that he did not crush her.

Once they were able to find enough rigidity in their muscles to stand up, R'chnt guided K'Shai once again through the city, past the industrial park at the outer edge, and into the woods. This time, he tracked along the river, instead of taking her to it for more fishing.

He moved cautiously and slowly, crouching lower and lower as he went and indicated for K'Shai to follow exactly before he slipped into silence. They approached a small clearing in the woods and looking ahead, K'Shai spotted a deer tenderly stepping towards the water for a drink.

Her heart fluttered as R'chnt showed her how to stalk the animal, setting her in a position in front of him, silently guiding her exactly how to raise the spear. She was silently sure he was sure she would miss, but he guided her all the same. He paused and she held still.

The young buck, so close to them that K'Shai could see his tiny button emergence of antlers atop his head, was amazingly oblivious to their approach. R'chnt motioned and instantly, K'Shai drew back.

The deer noticed her movement and raised his head in alarm, turning its large brown eyes towards her. It froze as K'Shai pressed the weapon forward, sending it flying.

The spear was light, well suited to her size and easy for her to carry. Like an oversized dart with a lethal tip, it was clearly a weapon made for hunting, more than sparring. It was so slender that it barely seemed suitable for the large hands of a Yautja.

It was sharp, though, made of lightweight metal that K'Shai was certain could probably slice through steel with ease. Its deadliness was of no question, like the Yautja.

K'Shai watched the spear fly silently in the direction she launched it, with as much ease as a paper airplane, halfway making her wonder if the thing had hidden thrusters somewhere on it. She was getting better at impaling fish from several feet away, but the young buck was well over twenty meters away.

The spear, though, did not seem to care about the distance. It performed its job as well as its user could direct it.

The deer shifted sideways and prepared to bound away in the same instant that the spear slid cleanly into its side. It was not a killing blow, but K'Shai felt a momentary thrill that she had even hit the animal, knowing suddenly that her group was most certainly going to eat well that night.

The buck bolted away, leaping clumsily into the river, thrown off by the impact, then its nimble legs pushed the animal away from the water and up the embankment into the woods, spear sticking out of its abdomen at an angle.

Immediately R'chnt was up and after it and K'Shai remained hot on his heels. The deer, full of shock, fear, and adrenaline combined with grace and agility that a human could never possess, was too quick for her to keep up with, but R'chnt caught up to the animal with unwavering focus.

K'Shai bolted to the spot and found the animal down, R'chnt crouched over it. He had not killed it, he had tackled it down. The spear was still sticking out of the creature, and K'Shai suddenly felt a horrific wave of guilt knowing what the poor thing's last moments of life were like, simultaneously wondering how many deer there even were left on the planet, and feeling doubly guilty for killing this one.

R'chnt moved quickly, grabbing a knife from his waist and calling to her sharply to take it. He directed her with a stabbing motion exactly where to insert the blade and K'Shai heard the bones of its skull crunch as the sharp weapon pierced it.

The deer stopped moving instantly. K'Shai could feel her hands trembling. She suddenly felt flush and weak and dropped to her knees next to R'chnt.

She had certainly killed her share of animals before, but that had always been with a rifle, from a distance. There was no way she would have ever even managed to approach a deer so closely without R'chnt's guidance and direction, and there was something about killing it with hand weapons that made the kill so personal it was unnerving.

This was very different than spearing a fish.

K'Shai remained morbidly silent as R'chnt lifted the carcass and carried the kill for her, directing her out of the woods.

He filled the silence of the late afternoon air with a story about a kill of his own that had been injured but managed to evade him for more than a day before he caught up with it, though he did pridefully admit that it was when he quite young, as if to imply that such things would never happen anymore.

"We honor our prey, K'Shai, with quick kills. Creatures for food must not suffer. Stalk quietly, select your target, kill quickly."

K'Shai mulled the words over then blurted out the question before she could stop herself, instantly regretting it.

"Is that how you hunt humans?"

R'chnt stopped and fell alarmingly still and silent for a moment. He lowered the carcass to the ground and turned to face K'Shai, the black depthless eyes of his biohelmet locking in on her. She braced her back straight and took in a deep, slow breath.

"M'di," he said simply.

He had no doubt that at some point such a conversation would come up and he had already pondered how he was going to handle it when it did.

She had already seen, touched, and recognized adornments on his neck sashes and on his belt that were trophies of hunts on her world; the pendants around his neck that she had once called dog tags; the human half skull that adorned the sheath to his sword, the shredded flag he retrieved from one battle, and the bones of a finger that had pulled the trigger on a weapon that damaged him once.

He was proud of his kills, proud of his trials and hunts on her world, the injuries they left and the skulls and weapons he collected, which someday, he hoped, she would see upon the walls of his ship and home, though she may never feel the same sense of pride in them, he recognized.

The question sent a ripple through him that brought him to a halt, and suddenly, all the forethought he put into a proper response to this subject seemed completely insufficient.

It was far easier for him to envision how he would puff up his chest, swell his pride, and regale her with tales of the human prey he stalked and killed when he had not grown to know her as he did. It was easier for him to think up dismissive half-answers and vague generalizations when she was not staring directly at him with a wary gaze welling up in her, after he had come to know, to want, to enjoy her company and her body.

He sighed and unclicked his helmet from the computer system and atmospheric controls, removing it from his head. He tucked it under his arm and crouched to the ground, balancing solidly on his large, flat feet.

He did not break his gaze back at her, and she eyed him patiently, apprehensively, waiting for further information.

"To hunt a creature that hunts you back, you already know," he said factually, keeping his words slow so she could understand them, and watching his tone carefully, "is a very different kind of thing."

She said nothing and for a moment, he wondered if she had understood his words or perhaps he needed to explain in her own language, which would have been difficult.

"K'Shai, kei'thin-de?" He questioned after a moment of silence.

She swallowed and nodded that she understood, still motionless, a dozen or so feet away from him, her eyes sinking down to the carcass of the deer he helped her hunt, kill, just so she could gain experience and feed her friends.

She had not meant to interrogate him on the subject of killing humans. She did not mean for the words to spew from her as they did, and she realized after the fact that they even had an uncontrolled bit of sarcasm and bitterness, which clearly he picked up on. He crouched before her trying to reduce his size as he figured out a way to respond, making her feel even more guilty.

She knew exactly what the Yautja were. What R'chnt was. She had not intended to imply accusation or blame or even the slightest hint of hate. Her heart shuddered at the thought and she was sure her hands were shaking.

She knew he had learned valuable lessons that he probably never imagined he even needed, or wanted, to learn during this hunt. She knew his age. For four hundred and thirty years he had been born, raised, walked, talked, and hunted Yautja.

He was a killer, a hunter, a warrior, a wise leader and teacher of hunters and warriors and killers. Fair game was fair game and for a Yautja, no species was off the menu or trophy wall, if they were hunted appropriate to the beliefs of the culture that they adhered so strictly to.

And yet, here was R'chnt, crouched before her in a clearly submissive gesture, trying his best to work his way around a conversation that was uncomfortable for both of them, because he had come to value her, equally as much as she did him.

She simply wished she could go back two minutes and stop herself from blurting out the words.

"What's it like?" She spoke in a shaky whisper, trying to fill the uncomfortable silence with the only thing currently on her mind.

R'chnt tipped his head, carefully watching her. He glanced to the deer and then back to her.

"It is challenging. You stalk. You watch. You choose the prey that will offer the best fight."

He spoke clearly, slowly, keeping his voice in a careful monotone. He tried to remain as diplomatic as possible, sticking to facts, but he would not lie to K'Shai; it was not part of his nature.

He was proud to have hunted the human prey he had, and there had been a part of him that was disappointed that the world would be closed for further hunting in light of what had happened to it.

"How do you know? How can you tell?" She asked, more comfortable now with the flow of the discussion.

"K'Shai, we hunt those that already display a will to defend themselves. Prey that wield weapons, lay traps, try to evade or stand directly to us." He informed her. "We know by watching. A good hunter watches. Studies the prey, learns about what he is hunting."

She licked her lips and nodded, silently acknowledging she understood his words, although she was still trying to absorb them.

She had done things in the last year she would never have done if she had gone to fashion school. She had killed people, but she justified it as actions of self-defense or humane necessity.

Doing so had made her sick to her stomach for days, unwilling to eat, and uninterested in even leaving the safety of her group. Somewhere along the way, she was not sure when, she had put aside the gut-wrenching feelings of those memories, but suddenly they all welled up again.

She could not imagine hunting down and killing a person for pleasure and enjoyment. The very same actions that made one species criminal, glorified the other.

The Yautja had very different views that she was only beginning to understand when it came to culture, spirituality, honor, and morality. Her eyes scanned over R'chnt's body, across the trophy adornments from Earth that he wore, which reflected his age and history, then settled on the deer carcass as she tried to figure out why she felt the way she did for killing it.

R'chnt waited for a moment to see if she had anything to add, and then continued on.

"When intelligent prey offers a challenge, it is an experience like no other." He paused, trying to keep the tone of his voice in check. "Your species, when forced to use wits instead of fleeing as instinct drives, are difficult to kill."

He added in quickly, trying to cover up what could have easily sounded like an insult, which was not his intention, "cunning and ferocious; incredibly challenging."

K'Shai did not move or respond. He ticked his mandibles together in consideration for a moment and then arced his body slightly to reveal an old scar on his left flank.

"They leave their own scars, and they have killed our kind before." He said.

Her eyes dropped to the scar. It was round, puckered in; the faded white lines of the scar tissue crawled away from the center like spiderwebs, barely noticeable against the mottled pale hues of his hide.

She had run her fingers across that scar many times without consideration of how he had acquired it. Suddenly, her posture relaxed and she approached him, lightly running her fingers across the scar.

"A human did this to you?" She asked in a whisper, eyes still locked on her fingertips over the wound.

"Yes." He said simply.

"Did you kill him?" She asked.

R'chnt stifled an amused grin.

"I would not be here otherwise."

She pressed her lips together and nodded softly, then lifted her eyes to his.

"Did you enjoy it?"

R'chnt paused, thinking quickly to the finger bone he wore off his neck; the finger that had pulled the trigger on the weapon that caused the scar. His mind flickered quickly to the skull on display in his ship; a proud kill.

"Yes." He said simply.

He reached for her face, touching it delicately with his massive, clawed hand and K'Shai shut her eyes and tipped her cheek readily into her palm. He leaned in towards her, softly caressing her, feeling her delicate skin under his calloused fingertips as he traced her tiny chin, stroked her lips and slid his palm securely under chin.

"I would never hurt you, K'Shai." He said simply.

She reached for his face, running her fingers along his jaw, and stroking the quills that grew near his temple as she leaned into him and whispered.

"I know."

She breathed heavily, relaxing for the first time throughout the moment and kissed him slowly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as far as they could reach over the frame of his protective armor and shoulder cannon, which currently slung low, pointing down.

R'chnt inhaled her scent and found himself instantly aroused, clicking invitingly before he shook his head, trying to focus his mind.

"I will teach you. For as long as the gods allow our Paths to be one. I will teach you to hunt, to fight. When you are ready, you may find yourself hunting intelligent prey."

"Oh," K'Shai exclaimed dismissively. "I could never hunt a human."

"There are other intelligent creatures in the universe than just humans and Yautja." He said with a chuckle; a sort of you didn't think we were the only ones, did you type of tone.

He stood, extended his hand to hers as he did, to direct her to her feet before he stepped away, silently wondering what power it was that she held over him to distract him so fully with her scent and touch.

"Oh, wait." She said in a delicate whisper. "Come over here."

She reached for him and pulled a tiny insect off his shoulder, crimping it between her thumb and forefinger.

"Tick." She said. "Nasty little buggers. Carry diseases. They bite you and you can get very sick."

"A Yautja would not get sick." He said proudly, elevating his chin slightly.

She looked at him in surprise. "You've never been sick? Gotten some kind of virus from an alien bug bite or something?"

He clapped his solid palm against his chest, drawing a dull thumping sound. "Yautja strong. Healthy. Meaningless bug."

She smiled, shaking her head slowly side to side as she stepped on.

"Well, that's lucky. We have to get inoculations just to go to a new country." She muttered.

He did not understand her quickly spoken alien words, but she explained further during the walk back.

They returned to the camp and pulled to a halt some distance away from the human group, but not out of sight. R'chnt ignored the quickly growing crowd of alien spectators that had noticed them approach and began to shuffle out of the building to watch them or eye the food they brought with them.

He noticed K'Shai's two companions daring to come the closest, but paid them no mind as he showed her with slow maneuvers, how to tie, secure, and suspend the carcass.

She watched as R'chnt dropped the deer to the ground, withdrew some deceivingly narrow tether from a small reel hidden on his belt and strung the deer up for her from a street lamp.

The tether, made from braided metal strands of the very same metal that the Yautja's awu'asa hunting armor was made from, could not be cut by anything other than Yautja weapons so far as she knew. It was nearly as thin as fishing line, yet it could suspend hundreds of pounds of weight without fail.

R'chnt lowered the animal down so she could reach it from the very end of the strung up hind legs to the tip of its nose, almost on the ground.

He withdrew a long blade from its holster on his belt and growled slightly, making a show of it for the onlooking humans. K'Shai glanced towards Lewis and Carlos who halted their approach and watched warily.

She offered a thin smile towards them and then paid careful attention to R'chnt's instruction. He handed her the blade and directed her in gutting, bleeding out, skinning, and carving the deer for cooking.

With the thrill and subsequent shaky feelings of the hunt behind her, carving the animal up came easily. She had done it before, many times, just not the way he was showing her. The blade slid smoothly under the hide and she cut it away as he directed, ensuring that she learned how to do it without damaging the pelt.

He instructed her that Yautja utilized every bit of their kills; even the bones, and had managed to make a not-so-vague series of comments about the human propensity to waste everything they got their hands on. She had a hard time disagreeing with him on that point, and many others that he made.

Eventually, K'Shai and R'chnt made their way from the human group to the Yautja group then to the quiet of the bedroom in the early hours of the morning as rain moved in.

R'chnt still could not quite comprehend K'Shai's displeasure with the weather, but he followed her into the bedroom all the same, relaxing enough to strip down immediately upon entering her living chambers and quickly spurring her to do the same.

He had gotten used to sleeping in his awu'asa as a matter of necessity when on hunts, but humans, he noticed, seemed to always sleep in garments. It was just one of the many strange mannerisms he doubted he would ever understand.

She crooned her readiness at his stimulation, her scent filled his nasal passages, and he allowed himself to slip into the distracted state of mind she seemed to naturally create with her scent as he penetrated her. R'chnt growled with pleasure as he pumped her, rocking his hips slowly and easily, smoothly gliding himself into and out of her until he boiled into full arousal.

K'Shai was his mate; she was not going to fight him away or harm him in the process of taking her and she was not going to stop providing him the pleasure of her company.

She had explained to him that humans mated for life. She had made a silent commitment to him with her body. It was overwhelming news that he struggled to try to understand her explanation of, for it was so vastly different than the Yautja way.

It had only spurred him to make the same commitment to her, though she did not ask for it return. He had protected her before, and would continue to do so in the future in any way he could. She pleasured him and he returned her pleasure while providing her with training and safety.

Despite the glaring differences in the beliefs and cultures of both species, R'chnt somehow knew that it was a silent expectation she had of him, to provide for her if he could, in return for her tender touch.

As he released himself into her and she stroked her fingers delicately along his body, he realized that her touch had become a craving, a need, unlike any he had ever had before.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hul'tah, K'Shai. Tau'epta."

K'Shai grimaced and huffed softly. Watch, then do.

Again and again he said, keeping his temper quite in check, which apparently the others in the group noticed, too, because she overheard their comments amongst themselves; something to the effect of not treating her like a Yautja, although she did not quite understand their point.

She was sure if she had heard them, he most certainly did too, but he carried on with his lesson, which had usurped the last several hours of the morning, ignoring them.

She woke up as dawn barely managed to peek between the rain clouds only to find him stark naked having a quiet conversation with W'rsa in the other room.

K'Shai tip toed down the hallway, dragging the bed sheet wrapped around her, drawing both their attention.

W'rsa, though he was on the other side of the small kitchenliving room, stepped back, edging himself as close to the fire escape window as possible, either in the hopes of blending in with the paint or making a hasty retreat, she was not sure, but he seemed visibly uncomfortable with his proximity to her, and she doubted it had anything to do with her loosely hidden nudity.

W'rsa was the only one in R'chnt's hunting pack that stood anywhere near as tall and muscular as he. Though R'chnt was still taller and larger, W'rsa stood about four inches shorter, and only barely noticeably less muscular, if at all.

R'chnt towered a foot or more over the others in his group, and was so tall himself, his head barely cleared the seven and half foot ceilings in the apartment. W'rsa was younger than R'chnt, but a well-aged and experienced warrior himself, older than the other hunters, save for R'chnt of course.

In fact, K'Shai had learned that at three hundred twenty years of age, W'rsa was on the tail end of Yautja "middle age", old enough to be in his prime, not quite old enough to start to turn gray with age himself.

He had immense respect for R'chnt and had been his student as an unblooded youngster, and had never left his side in all the time since. He was receiving daily, personal training from R'chnt, filling the unique and much coveted position of learning to become a leader himself from one of the best Leaders alive.

The best that K'Shai could understand it as it was explained to her by R'chnt and W'rsa, he was like an apprentice, bound to take R'chnt's place as Leader when such a time came.

W'rsa was not of R'chnt's bloodline. She was surprised to learn that it was very rare for any male to ever train, or really even associate with, his own offspring. She did not fully understand how it could be that the male and female genders lived separate lives, but R'chnt had explained that males sired offspring, females raised them and by the time an offspring was ready to begin its own training for the first hunt, it could be possible that his sire would have been killed on a hunt of his own.

K'Shai had wanted to learn more about the Yautja way, but it sounded so foreign she wanted to let it absorb in small pieces at a time.

W'rsa bowed immediately and backed away partially out of respect of R'chnt, partially out of respect for K'Shai, partially to convey he intended no challenge, and partially to separate himself further from her appealing scent.

K'Shai was quickly catching on to the changing scents of the Yautja h'dui'se, their musk, and it finally dawned on her that the Yautja were reacting to scents from her that she wasn't even aware she was emitting, yet it was certainly eliciting a response in them.

It had been so long since she had a real shower anyway, that she had sort of gone nose-numb to her own scent as it was. The thought that maybe that was why R'chnt was so interested in staying outside in the rain horrified her for a fleeting moment as she wondered exactly how sensitive Yautjan nasal systems were.

She knew that they had slits inside their upper gums that drew in scents into their sinuses, and she had come to understand that they could also, like a snake, taste scent in the air. The Yautja tongue, a forked appendage that was hidden in the back of the throat, could extend into their mouth and past their inner teeth, and was able to pick up scents K'Shai's dull senses would never detect.

The first time K'Shai slipped her tongue into R'chnt's mouth to meet his had caught him quite off guard. As far as unfamiliar sensations went, she had pressed him into discovering them all, and while he had clearly enjoyed his first experience with her lips around his erection, there were other sensations he simply was not keen on. She assumed perhaps it was because of how sensitive their tongues were.

Watching the way W'rsa backed away from her, putting more distance between himself and R'chnt, K'Shai couldn't help but to think it was a reaction to her scent more than the sight of her, as it had also become evident that Yautja lacked any level of modesty at all.

He reacted so quickly and automatically it was instinctual and so sharp it made her stop in her tracks. The Yautja were massive, fearsome, heavily armored, completely deadly, and here was one of the proudest examples of that ferocity that she had come to know, backing away in alarm from a sheet-draped naked nineteen year old human girl.

R'chnt had turned to acknowledge K'Shai's approach, sensing the dia-shui that W'rsa had picked up on; a specific type of scent that was saturated in sexual pheromones. It was one thing to be aware of them on him, but another thing entirely to taste them oozing from the female that entered the room.

W'rsa, appropriately indicating he did not intend a confrontation, backed away and clicked in nervous submission. R'chnt drew his tusks apart warily, but strode over to his mate, easing the tension that was making W'rsa stand as rigid as a metal rod.

"K'Shai," he said to her. "We shall train."

The sky had opened up on them all morning and she was cold. It was windy and they were fifty feet in the air on the roof top.

She had come to learn that the Yautja preferred high ground, had no fear of heights whatsoever, were able to climb any surface they could sink their talons on their hands and feet into, and also savored heat, thriving in high temperatures as their almost reptilian-esque skin would suggest, but apparently that did not mean they could not tolerate cold, wet, damp.

She was shivering as she lined herself up again to perform the same series of movements that R'chnt patiently showed her while the others in his group sparred, their spears and bladed staffs they called ki'cti-pa and dha'kte wrist blades clanging together over the sound of their rumbled conversations amongst themselves.

K'Shai tried hard to put as much focus and energy into her lesson as they were into their training, but as the wind rippled her wet clothes again and sent renewed shivers through her body, she wanted to simply run inside and tuck under the blankets until the weather improved.

It was obvious that enough days had passed to allow the group enough rest and recovery from their injuries that they were all getting prepared, eager, to return to the fight. Usually they only would hold out in camp for no more than two days, and it was already onto the morning of day four, but R'chnt did not seem prepared to tell his group to move any time soon and get on with the hunt. Still, they were preparing.

R'chnt extended his immense patience and waited for her to regroup her efforts and perform the maneuver again. The motions were slow and stretching.

He had her arcing her arms, shifting her weight and holding, pressing into slow motion lunges and dropping into sustained crouches.

It reminded her of the Yoga classes she took a couple times, and suddenly the most unusual image of a Yautja in Yoga tights jumped into her mind causing her fail to stifle a giggle. R'chnt reminded her to focus, again, in a slightly growled tone.

"Sei-i," K'Shai said with a nod, pressing her lips together and trying to focus back on the task at hand. "Sorry."

R'chnt growled. "H'chak-au h'ko, hu-eilk-Yautjan." Do not apologize, and speak Yautja.

She resisted the urge to apologize for apologizing and did a mental check to speak Yautjan when she had something to say. She was having a hard time thinking about much else but the cold running through her, and her words came easier in English, obviously.

Yautja did not have a word for an apology, it simply was not part of their language. The closest word to it was h'chak, a word she had learned meant mercy or forgiveness, and in the proper context of use, could be construed as an apologetic term. R'chnt reminded her that it had no place in her vocabulary.

He moved in closely to her, helping her by direct guidance on correcting flaws in her position that he made her hold for unusually long periods of time.

He put his large hands on her shoulders and he gripped firmly, supporting her as she shook under him, shifting her weight, arcing her back, settling her into what could easily be viewed as a suggestive position by onlookers.

Just when she thought he was never going to stop with the lessons despite the inclement weather, he leaned in close to her, putting his head right near hers, his grip tightening on her shoulders for a moment as though he was gauging her discomfort, and approved of her efforts, releasing her to stop.

She sighed with relief and turned to retreat indoors.

He knew she was freezing, shivering, and discontented, but he noticed how she kept looking to the others sparring around her, readying for the renewal of the hunt. She had not complained, though her h'dui'se told him she was most certainly miserable. He recalled his own training sessions under the violent tutelage of his own leader, so long ago.

K'vel-tar had been brutal and ferocious, but capable and wise, both on the hunt and towards his students. R'chnt could remember any one of hundreds of training sessions conducted in rain and mud, but it was the few hard lessons he endured in the cold of mountain peaks without even any btja-u'linja to warm him that had been the most difficult.

Yautja youth in training were permitted to wear old or damaged awu'asa other hunters had cast aside. Most leaders kept a stock of discarded armor pieces; their working mechanics removed, for their students.

Getting the armor was a fight in of itself. Everything about the way Yautja were trained was to ensure that the strongest and most capable were rewarded with the best equipment. Lesser youngsters or lesser bloodlines would likely not survive chiva and were not worth consideration or compassion.

To even attempt to help a friend get armor would certainly risk both the one too weak to get the reward, and the one foolish enough to hold himself back to help the other, being beaten by their peers or even their leader, possibly to death.

R'chnt, so young at the time that his tusks were mere nubs, had tackled over the others in his learning group to retrieve the very best armor scraps there were. He slept in his prizes, so proud of his first real trophy.

The armor was for some protection and allowed young hunters the first hints of familiarity with wearing it and moving in it. Naturally, the armor was non-functioning, and the net mesh that conducted heat was not present.

K'vel-tar, the proper leader he was, gave that no consideration when he sent his eight students into the mountains to track and kill a djh-orn beast as a group with their bare hands. Five of the students returned. Two had died of the cold before they had even found their target, the other fell from the cliff when the animal lashed its tail.

It was one of many times R'chnt's endurance and stamina were put to the test before he had ever earned his Blooding mark. He taught his students in the same way, to prepare them for the hunt, challenging their endurance, abilities, and blood lines at every opportunity, forcing the best of them to rise to the challenge and the weak and incapable to falter as the gods saw fit.

As he had improved as a leader from a half a life time ago, students that vied for a chance to train with him and earn his recognition became more select, better, and the challenges he pushed on them became equally greater.

There was no room in the Yautja way of a hunter for those too weak or incompetent to endure. Such Yautja were nothing more than 'asiegan, bound to spend their lives unblooded, unrecognized, deemed incapable, and condemned to serving other, better, accomplished, and stronger Yautja.

As he watched her small body shivering against the cold, her garments soaked, he felt a sense of pride in that, despite how much she no doubt wanted to, she did not complain or ask to stop. She endured on, displaying fortitude and strength he had come to know she had.

He was sure she thought what he was asking her to do, kv'var training exercises that were the very foundation of all that she must come to know, was probably his idea of slow motion torture as the rain pummeled down, but she did not complain.

He had waited for it, too. He assumed, as the others in his group muttered when they thought he could not hear, that she would break and ask for reprieve. Instead, to his own surprise, it was her determined endurance that made him break first and dismiss her with praise for her efforts.

He had overheard some of the others in his group mumble that had any of them lost their composure, failed to hold a position, or shiver so furiously during training as she had, he likely would have beaten them until they got it right.

K'Shai, though, was not Yautja. She was trying to be something that was against her very breeding and nature to be, and he was pleased with her performance. He watched her disappear down the stairs on the side of the building and turned to W'rsa

"She rests now. In the morning, it will be time." R'chnt informed W'rsa.

He did not sleep that night at all. He mated with her twice and watched her rest peacefully next to him, warm and content nestled into his body. He had set it in his mind what needed to be done, what action must be taken to assure her place and protection, and he had spoken to Neh'rti of it twice already.

The first conversation with the Clan Leader, a formidable female who was elder even to R'chnt, had involved quite a bit of overt disbelief on her part, followed quickly by a flare of her temper as she tried to gauge whether or not he was manufacturing some poor attempt at a joke before she cut off communication with him, issuing a slew of curses as she did.

R'chnt was not in the least bit surprised to hear from the others in his group that some of the elder council had contacted them within minutes to verify the rumors they had heard that their Leader had lost his mind.

When Neh'rti, contacted him again to discuss his request to bring a human that he had mated with back to the clan ship for introduction into the clan via Blooding ceremony, she was calmer. He had already prepared a long winded list of her accomplishments and his opinion of her, only to be informed rather briskly that she had heard enough from the other council members and he was to bring her to the ship.

When they reached the shuttle in the morning, through the barely lifted fog, K'Shai did not hide her enthusiasm for the experience of her first ride into space. He was sure her people had gone to the stars before, but she had informed him that only a very small number of her kind had been given the privilege.

He was not quite sure what privilege it was to go into space, but he found himself watching her with amusement as she eyed the stars, her own world, and all the other Yautja ships in orbit with wild wonder, pointing and vocalizing at everything she saw.

Once the shuttle was landed in the docking bay, he led her directly to the council hall and Neh'rti and the other eight members of the clan council, elders and arbitrators, six elders and two apprentices, filed into the room formally dressed.

K'Shai's uncontrolled nerves flooded his senses.

She stood quiet and tall as her attention was refocused from the trophies on the wall to the Yautja now silently scrutinizing her. K'Shai had been surveying one of the largest trophies in the room; a massive serpent that R'chnt had hunted single-handedly hundreds of years ago.

He brought the entire length of the thing, which he had stabbed no less than seven times in the raging ocean waters of a severe world that seemed to storm non-stop, back to the Clanship as a monument to his prowess, strength, and skill.

It secured his position as Leader and had marked the start of a new journey for him, though he was still young enough to have to work his way up through the ranks of Leadership as well.

Now as Neh'rti glared at K'Shai, R'chnt felt once again like a young hunter, bringing a new kind of trophy before the Clan, once again trying to secure a status, only this time not for himself. To say that K'Shai was frightened was an understatement.

She stood so close to him he could feel her elbow shaking against his hip, and he was sure that the others could smell the nervous h'dui'se seeping from her. Neh'rti was aware of his intentions to Blood her as his own student and her approval to bring K'Shai back to the ship was an unspoken acceptance of that request.

She would never offer up vocal approval of K'Shai, nor verbally grant him permission to bring her into the Clan, but allowing him to bring her this far was as close as it he would get.

For the longest time, Neh'rti said nothing. She moved around K'Shai, surveying her, circling her. R'chnt knew that Neh'rti would take her to evaluate her in her own way while he made the arrangements for the ceremony.

She dismissed R'chnt after what seemed like an eternity, and although he was concerned for K'Shai's well-being, he knew he had little choice but to leave her to the females. He hurried out of the chambers as directed, making a point to Neh'rti that he was trying not to rattle her temper.

It was hours before he saw K'Shai again.

She joined him, looking puzzled and still full of apprehension, in a cantina as he sat with others of his elder Leader peers, awaiting her return. The others were all curious about her, eager to see her, though they were doing a poor job of hiding their bewilderment over the entire situation.

When K'Shai entered the room, the few hunters that were idling over their meals at nearby tables all raised their heads and ended their conversations mid-word, their eyes locked on the alien. R'chnt and the others stood immediately and he headed to her casually, but purposefully.

Her wafting scent in the air would offer confusing signals to the others, unfamiliar with the association of her particular scents to her mood. She was agitated and nervous, he knew, and relieved when she saw him.

Her scent would convey her stressed status as fear and weakness; it was not the message he wanted the others to pick up on. He vaguely wondered how many hunters or crew or 'aseigan she had passed in the corridors.

Though she was female and had just come from the females' private sections of the ship, her lingering scent still put her at risk, even from a slave that might find himself brash enough to overtake her.

He flared his mandibles lightly as he approached K'Shai, displeased that Neh'rti would allow her to walk the corridors alone to find her way to him. Though he was impressed that she had found him, she was not yet trained in the Yautja way or ready to handle herself freely in the ship.

He was vaguely relieved that the ship was nearly empty now, as most of the hunters were on her world. Though between hunters stocking up on supplies for their groups, injured fighters taking advantage of a little break and taste of home and hundreds more of crew and slaves, there were plenty of threats to be found on the ship.

She was instantly relieved when he stood by her and, though he stayed wary of all around him, R'chnt felt more eased to elicit that response from her.

He introduced her to the elders as guided her to the chosen kehrite that would serve the purpose of the Blooding ceremony. The servants had already been directed to set up the necessary supplies and K'Shai and R'chnt entered to find the training arena filling with females and any curious and available hunter that had heard the news.

He glanced across to a far entrance and noticed two crew workers and four 'aseigan all staring into the large, oval room with wide expressions.

K'Shai took to the center of the room as he guided her, her musk still emanating nervousness, but noticeably more content in his presence. She stood between eight elders; R'chnt and four other males before her in a semicircle and Neh'tri and two other females staggered behind her.

As far as he was concerned, the Blooding ceremony was a mere formality; she had long since earned, and displayed, her scars and injuries that proved her mettle and ability and experience, but he seared the mark of his Clan into her forehead proudly. She winced at the pain but did not balk.

He had been reluctant to leave breeding marks on her because deliberately causing her pain was something he did not want to do, but there was no getting around that for the Blooding ceremony. He marked her as his student and she accepted the momentary sting of the branding without a fuss.

Her reaction to it, or lack thereof, would be scrutinized, and he chose not to forewarn her that it would hurt, because he did want her to appear more tense than she already was.

The Blooding would be a test of her strength and stoicism. What a Yautja could endure – pain, hardships, challenges – was always put to the test. Something as routine as a Blooding mark should never cause a warrior to flinch; it was a proud honor to have the mark of their Leader carved into the head of a youngster.

It was the symbol that the youngster would forever wear, proudly displaying that they had earned their place in the Clan. K'Shai accepted it with the same grace and honor he would expect of any Yautja; a look of trust in her eye as he cut into her flesh that only he recognized.

He had been questioned multiple times if he really did mate with her and he knew her lack of bite marks from his tusks were some of the cause of the disbelief that it was true. He kept silent on his thoughts about the pleasures she could provide, trying his best to avoid any jealousy that could put her in jeopardy.

After the Blooding ceremony, R'chnt guided K'Shai through the corridors to the temple where he would conduct another ritual with her.

It was a hardly recognized ancient custom, and when he stated his intentions to perform it before the other elders and council, they all had a brief discussion trying to recall when the last time it had even been formally observed. R'chnt thought it necessary, even beyond the Blooding mark, and made his point to the council who obliged, as it made no difference to them anyway.

Soon, they were seated on the floor amongst a circle of elders, council, and curious spectators once again. This time sharing drops of their own blood in a chalice as R'chnt bonded her to him by blood and himself to her.

They drank from the chalice as the ceremony continued and K'Shai, who eyed him with pride and peace, reached for his hand as she leaned in to kiss him.

Suddenly, R'chnt felt as though he has been electrocuted, and in his mind he entered into a state of aa'zu-dje. He saw fog; he saw K'Shai reaching for him. And just as soon as he did, he heard voices in the room around him calling to both of them. It was a curious thing; a vision from the gods, he knew.

He was sure the blood bond was consummated and the vision had been the gods' way of showing him that they were intended to share the Path as one. He thought nothing more on it by the time they had settled back into the shuttle for the return trip to Earth.

The shuttle had been filled with supplies by the 'aseigan while he attended to important matters, and K'Shai seemed distracted by the effects of the vision and her second trip into space. He changed the course of the shuttle to give her a brief tour of the sights, distracting her further from whatever seemed to be weighing on her mind.

He considered only briefly that perhaps she seemed so concerned because she was regretting making the blood bond when she slid into the command chair atop him, turning away from the view of the planet she called "Jupiter."

He stretched his body and his tusks as she kissed and touched him, groping him, and stirring him into full arousal. R'chnt groaned in pleasure as she eagerly unstrapped his belts and armor, an action she had put well into practice and had mastered.

She stroked her hands over his rapidly inflating erection and cooed and moaned as she felt him begin to drip while he growled an aroused purr. He could smell her wetness and readiness and another scent in the air from her that he had noticed days before, but did not recognize. He was still getting familiar with her ever changing scent.

K'Shai slid back off him, removed her own garments and requested him out of the chair with a thin smile. She crawled into the massive command chair, back against him, knees on the hard metal seat.

R'chnt stepped in behind her. She leaned forward, clamping her small hands around the back rest of the chair, shifting on the thin padding under her knees until she was more comfortable. He groaned and growled a multi-tonal rumble that bounced between a soothing purr of pleasure and an eager growl of anticipation until she was positioned to her liking and he grappled her hips, sliding himself into her easily.

He rounded his back over her, lowering his tusks to her shoulders and neck, tickling them teasingly as he smelled the sweet and enticing aroma that poured off her. She smelled entirely different to him, and although he could not quite place the scents exactly, for they were such a strange mixture of alien world and familiar Yautja musk, they aroused him.

Her body emanated a combination of her own aroused state and his musk, as if they blended together from somewhere deep within her and seeped through her pores as she groaned and huffed below him. He shut his eyes, feeling the entire length of her tract squeeze against him as he entered her and she bellowed.

R'chnt flexed his mandibles, clicking his tusks as he withdrew and pressed forward, tipping and flexing his hips, rocking over his feet, sliding through her tract slowly, allowing every sensitive inch of skin between them to share in the sensations.

She huffed and moaned under him, her delicate little body stretching and clenching in time to match his penetrations. He slid his shaft nearly completely out to the tip, rumbling in sheer delight at the tingling thrill that shot through his body and listening to her pant and groan as he slid himself back in.

She adjusted her position, rocking her hips just enough to allow him a deeper penetration and she moaned loudly, eeking out a whispered request for more between her huffing breaths. He quickened his thrusts, faster and harder with each forward press, watching her body heat rise to match his own as the both bellowed in ecstasy.

He gripped her body tightly, sliding his hands from her hips along her abdomen, settling them on her breasts, which elicited louder satisfied moans from her. He rubbed his tusks and cheeks against her soft skin, pressing his abdomen against her back as he covered her completely in his musk, letting her tender warmth tingle him to the core as he pumped her.

K'Shai, completely distracted from the stars and planets, ships, and any other concerns she had, panted and moaned in perfect rhythm with R'chnt's own chuffing breaths. He too had allowed any thoughts or concerns evacuate from his mind as he focused solely on the feeling of her body under him, around his shaft, wet, hot, trembling in delight, and full of pleasure until he filled her with his heated juices.

When they returned to the planet, the group resupplied, the shuttle returned to the jag'd'atoll under its own guidance, and K'Shai was returned to the safety of her own group as R'chnt departed ways so the hunt could continue.

They tracked scattered trails of the kainde amedha they hunted for days. While aboard the clan ship, R'chnt was at least able to personally check on the continued status of the hunt and confirmed what he had already suspected; that planet-wide, the hives were being eliminated so thoroughly, the remaining ones were farther and farther between.

The Yautja had been performing honorably and thoroughly, as they should, doing their species proud trying to correct the dishonor that had been cast upon them by bad blood. His one wish was that he could have found any of the cowards who had done this to the world, and present its head to K'Shai as a gift.

Whether or not any of the ones involved in this disgrace were even still alive, he did not know, though he had been tasked with killing some of the kin that shared the bloodlines with the disgraced ones.

He was available, and closest, to several who carried dishonored blood in their veins, so he had culled four adult males and three juvenile males from the gene pool.

Only females handled issues amongst females, and R'chnt had killed the juvenile males that had been expunged from the safety of the mei'sa where the females harbored them while they turned on two juvenile females that also shared the same blood. Killing his own, especially in such a manner, was little more than a massacre and it made R'chnt fill with detest that he had to do such a thing; there was no honor in the killing, but there was also only disgrace in the bloodlines, so the culling was for the benefit of the Yautja people.

As he led his group back after seven rotations of the sun of Earth from a completed hunt, he thought quietly about the dishonor that his own people were capable of, and how K'Shai, alien as though she was, still stood with honor at his side, surpassing anyone's expectation of her thus far.

He knew Neh'rti was sure that K'Shai would likely fail, but her willingness to allow the Blooding of an alien into the Clan demonstrated her trust in R'chnt's opinion that K'Shai would never cause such a dishonor or disgrace to her, to him, to the Clan.

He knew that she was simply not capable of such a thing anyway. Despite her tenacity to survive and her desire to learn and please him in a Yautja way, he knew K'Shai valued honor and respected life; qualities which the bad bloods who had done this to her world clearly lacked.

He greeted her, eager to return to her, after so many passed days and she delighted in seeing him. She smiled widely at the first sight of him; a stunned face amongst a camp full of stunned faces all turned in his direction as he rode to her atop an animal.

His group caught the beasts idly wandering through vacated streets. He did not know the human name for the creatures, but a similar beast inhabited Yaut, and R'chnt had learned, as all do in the mei'sa, to ride the j'kur.

He extended his arm and gripped her tightly, drawing her up onto the back of the animal, and catching her unusual scent as he did.

At first, he thought either it was stronger, or his absence from her for so many days made the n'dui'se more pronounced, then he realized there was a new life in her womb. She was pregnant; something he had only briefly pondered as a possibility, and dismissed it out of certainty that they were too different in nature to produce offspring.

It was obvious by the conversation that night before she fell asleep soothingly warmed in his arms, that she was delighted over her pregnancy, though she was nervous.

K'Shai was surprised that R'chnt recognized her condition the moment he helped her onto the horse. She didn't know how, but assumed it was his incredibly capable sense of smell that allowed it.

Later in the evening as they talked, he confirmed it was her scent that announced it, but also admitted he did not recognize the unfamiliar combination of human and Yautja n'dui'se, and confirmed her condition with a quick scan from his biohelmet, which he showed her.

She was amazed by the look of her own world, her own body, through the display in the helmet. What struck her as blurry constantly moving waves of color that she could barely discern and almost made her a little motion sick, were to him, a highly detailed scan that allowed him to see what human eyes could not.

She knew the Yautja had different visual acuity than humans, and the biohelmet merely amplified and accentuated their natural abilities. She gazed through the helmet for a long while, watching the little peanut-sized red dot in her belly in amazement.

It was impossible for her to tell that the little blob was actually a new life based on what she saw, but she watched in wonder all the same.

She knew before she had even pressed the little button to run the do-it-yourself test that morning that she was pregnant, the test was just a formality. She had worried about R'chnt while he was gone for so long, certain that he would not return; the blood filled images of her vision plaguing her mind.

R'chnt had shared the same vision, but he saw it differently. He did not see himself covered in what could only be his blood. He did not hear the odd voice echo that spoke to her of her strong heart. She feared it was his imminent death that the Yautja gods had showed her and though she was contented by his presence and rested comfortably against his healthy and warm body, she still feared for him, and now for the life inside her.

K'Shai needed him. She had blood bonded herself to him and she had linked not only her own life, but a new life, to him. She tried to put aside the fear she felt for his safety, and during his absence, she tried to put into practice the hunting skills he was teaching her.

She had gone deer hunting with three others at their request, hoping her new found abilities from her 'alien friend' would be put to good use.

She was infuriated with their inability to track in silence, and how they strode so heavily through the woods, scanning for deer when they felt like being quiet enough to do so, hoping to find one through luck.

She tried to correct them, hissing quiet warnings to them to be silent, but the outing seemed to have less to do with actual hunting than it did with a way to gossip and chatter out of earshot of the others.

She separated herself from the group, tracked by sight the way R'chnt had guided her, and returned to the group later that night with a doe, spear still sticking out through the chest.

She did not remove it because she was proud she managed to kill it with a single shot and without R'chnt there to pad her on the back, she at least wanted to display her growing skills to the very group she intended to feed.

They looked at her with surprise as she dragged the animal behind her. While Lewis and Carlos thanked her for the meal and her efforts, they also warned her she should not have left the group and should not go out alone.

She did not know her condition at that point, and would have thought twice if she had, but she would never have gotten a deer in the company she was with, and although she brought the group food and sat with them at the camp fire and ate, she never felt more outcast from them than before that night.

She knew full well what the humans said about the Yautja when they weren't around; what they called them. Big Bastards. Ugly fuckers. Fuck Face.

The very group, the very people that were protecting them, scouring the planet at a risk of their own annihilation, were the brunt of whispered insults and disrespect.

Of course, the humans respected – feared- the Yautja enough to keep their eyes diverted away whenever they were around, and willingly accept direction as the Yautja offered, but whenever they were out of sight and earshot from the human group, the disparaging comments would begin again.

They had their own names for R'chnt especially, and from the very beginning, had dubbed him Earl.

They never called him that name when they suspected he might be within earshot and as the months progressed, they stopped calling him it when she was turned a deaf ear to the gossip about her, who would choose to be with the Big Ole' Gray Fucker.

The first person to call him that had a thick accent the words came out sounding more like Earl Gray, thus the name was born as an inside joke. As she sat chewing a meaty slice of her venison kill, she realized that the gossip and name calling had turned to outright fear of her too.

When she found out she was pregnant, she chose to share the new with Lewis and Carlos only, though Nancy picked up on "the glow" she said K'Shai was emanating. K'Shai had only found out the very morning R'chnt returned on the back of a giant draught horse.

The next day, she had more of a chance to talk to Nancy about motherhood, idly casting glances to Kelly as they discussed the possible differences between a human child and a Yautja hybrid.

By the following evening, she had told R'chnt that she had been feeling differently. Not sick, as was typical for humans, but stronger, like she was changing somehow, and credited it to the Yautja blood churning inside her womb.

As she pressed her lips against him once again and undressed him in a field near a pond where they made camp a short distance away from both groups, she demonstrated her vigor to him, urging him harder and faster, letting him get more aggressive in his penetrations as she huffed and bellowed her approval.

The following morning, she straddled him as he laid on his back and pleasured herself readily as he pumped her powerfully.

When a small group of humans found them, they approached with the same look of alarm that he had come to expect from the species, and amused himself with the thought of how oddly similar the look was to the very animals K'Shai called deer that they would hunt for meat.

It was just then that W'rsa had sent him a transmission from a human outpost being openly broadcasted and by nightfall, R'chnt was guiding K'Shai and her group on what would be the final stretch of the journey of the Yautja and humans together.

K'Shai was in child and as he discussed with her during the trek to the human encampment, he needed her to rejoin the females aboard the jag'd'atoll. It was proper. It was expected.

There were experienced mothers who could help K'Shai along, and she would be safer in the mei'sa that the females had aboard the ship to raise offspring away from the males. R'chnt, like every other male adult Yautja, knew nothing about child bearing or rearing.

It was not a necessary part of their lives and one that he was not involved in at all. K'Shai expressed a very different view on family groups than he was used to, though he had witnessed the human family connection many times during his time observing her group.

Males and females raised their offspring together until the child was of such an age to venture out on its own, if it did at all, he had learned.

The concept of such things made no sense at all, and for days while he watched K'Shai interact with her group, gaining knowledge from experienced mothers of her own kind while the tiny thing in her womb grew slowly and steadily, its little legs sometimes twitching so subtly she could not even feel the movement that he could see, he tried to watch the sires of the children in her group to see how they interacted, and how it benefitted the youth at all.

Yautja males had nothing to do with their own children and R'chnt was apprehensive at best about the idea of K'Shai's insistence that he would remain in his hybrid child's life. He wondered what the females would think of that, and doubted it would go over well, but K'Shai remained adamant in her gentle way.

She rested comfortably with him, made it clear to him that she needed him in both her and the offspring's life, and had absolutely no intention of raising the child in the mei'sa without him.

"Neh'rti will not like that at all, K'Shai." He warned her with a careful growl. "It is not the Yautja way."

"Well, Neh'rti has noticed that I am not Yautja." K'Shai said simply and left it at that before distracting him with her tongue against his skin, something she was quite capable of.

Her sexual desires had been slowly amplifying and the strong scent of her, which was becoming more Yautja-esque as the fetus in her abdomen grew, was causing a stir amongst the males. Yautja females preferred to stay in a group away from male interference after breeding; rarely were bred females ever alone in community areas, and certainly never alone in male company.

The infants were born outside of male observation, in the protection of the mei'sa where they would be raised until such a time that they were ready to prepare for their first hunt under the tutelage of an instructor; males with males, females with females.

The signals from females were always clear. When they were bred they were not available for mating again in their lifetime.

Mating was for reproduction, and although it was a pleasurable experience for any Yautja male, females did not extend themselves for pure pleasure, as K'Shai did so naturally. When they were fertile and ready to mate, females would drive males into a fury, and once bred, the female was finished for life.

Lucky males, strong enough to endure the rigors of the mating season challenges, would breed multiple times in a single season with several different females.

K'Shai was bred, but she was also ready for mating, and her conflicting scent was having the same effect on R'chnt as well as the others in his group. Though they were respectful enough of R'chnt to know their boundaries with her, some of the newest straggling Yautja additions they had picked up, from another clan, offered no such discrimination.

R'chnt could sense the trio of youngsters' Leader's musk, oozing with challenge to his authority. Though they were from another Clan, they were not rivals, and R'chnt issued a powerful blow again and again to the smug youngblood, to put him in his rightful place, at his feet.

The effect did not produce the intended result, and in the early morning after two rounds of wildly pleasurable mating in which K'Shai challenged R'chnt to physically wearing him out of his own sex drive, a high pitched shriek of one of the human offspring shattered the still air, and R'chnt knew immediately K'Shai was in grave danger.

He charged as quickly as he could towards the growing commotion as humans from the opposite end of the camp came running onto the scene, weapons at the ready.

The rest of his group followed sharply behind him, but stopped in their tracks in surprise, gauging the scene as it unfolded while R'chnt tore into the youngblood, who had only become Leader a few days earlier when his own Leader faltered, slamming him into the ground a dozen feet from K'Shai, who clattered to the ground in a bloody heap.

He paused long enough to notice W'rsa grab her up and get her to a safer distance before he turned on the youngster while his two companions, glued to the ground ten meters away, stood in horror, doing nothing.

The humans wielded their weapons, but held off the triggers while they shouted as the children shrieked and wailed. R'chnt was aware of it all. He could hear K'Shai's trembling sobs in between ragged breaths; the youngblood had gripped her so tightly he was crushing her chest and she was having difficulty breathing.

R'chnt slammed the disrespectful youngster again and again, drawing his spear and running it through his thighs one at a time; intended to kill him, but slowly, pointedly, ensuring his two companions knew what fate await them next.

Again and again R'chnt slammed the defiant youngster, breaking his jaw, cracking his skull, shattering ribs, drawing gushing bursts of blood, spreading it over a large circle between the humans and the Yautja, who all looked on in stunned and horrified silence. R'chnt was furious, but kept his focus sharp and clear, while the struggling youth filled with rage, bellowed like a brute, and clumsily flung himself forward again and again, fatiguing with each exertion as his life's blood poured from him.

He still managed to draw in enough breath to curse R'chnt and K'Shai; to call them both disgraces; to call the offspring he had intended to gut from her womb an abomination. He tried to incite R'chnt's temper enough to make him lose focus, never realizing that his temper was fully incited, but his focus would not fail him.

In a last desperate attempt, he changed attacks and lunged towards K'Shai after R'chnt had struck him hard enough to send him flying her general direction.

R'chnt bolted towards the coward as K'Shai bellowed out a howl that sounded nothing like her usually quiet-voiced human self could even make, and slammed the knife that had once been embedded through her own thigh, into his chin, the tip of it coming out the back of her attacker's skull.

There was a quiet that filled the air as even R'chnt came to a halt and gauged the situation in surprise. K'Shai trembled for a moment, one side of her body covered in deep red blood, the other dripping now with bright green fluids, then collapsed.

He and the medic Gr'tyun-de tended to her and her human companions likewise came to check on her condition. Her closest two friends approached R'chnt a short while later.

One of them that he knew was called Lewis, bravely confronting R'chnt. In any other possible situation, R'chnt would have taken the obvious anger and the biting tone as his other companions tried futilely to hold him back, as a direct challenge to his authority, but R'chnt held his ground and kept his weapons holstered.

The human had no weapon drawn and was expressing concern for the welfare of his friend, which R'chnt understood.

"I will protect K'Shai," R'chnt assured Lewis, backing him off as he donned the familiar surprised look on his face.

R'chnt was sure, positive, he had spoken the proper words correctly. He had been getting lessons in English from K'Shai just as she was learning Yautjan from him.

Lewis took a moment to gain his composure then responded, somewhat more calmly.

"Well, that does a hell of a lot of good if you're not around. What if you die? What happens to her? She's crazy about you. She loves you. She'll follow you to hell for Christ's sake. How are you going to protect her?"

Valid points, R'chnt thought, although some of the words the human spoke made no sense. Love? What was that? What was Hell? What was a Christ's sake? He would have to ask K'Shai about those things, he thought, but still, the human male named Lewis made noteworthy concerns, especially given K'Shai's pregnancy.

This was exactly why she needed to be returned to the Clan ship, to gestate, bear, and raise the offspring amongst the females as a proper Yautja.

Though, in the time he spent watching her and his child grow, learning about her customs and expectations when it came to raising a child, the idea of not seeing either of them again, not having her to mate with, not knowing the child she insisted he should, did not appeal to him at all.

He needed her as much as she needed him, and somehow, he had determined as she did, that they were just going to make it work, assuming he lived long enough to see the end of the war.

It was days later when they reached the destination, which K'Shai had said was a pick up point some distance from the safe camp.

Though the pick up point had been centered amid a cleared area, R'chnt's proximity alarm notified him and his group that one of the other groups working in the area had chased up a straggling hive and were in pursuit of several drones and their queen.

He warned K'Shai to clear the area and she urged new humans to safety. They protested and the delay had given the kainde amedha queen time to charge onto the scene with her offspring and wreak havoc.

In the fray, the very building they had gone to the top of for a better tactical vantage point, collapsed partially thanks to a combination of acid blood and furious weapon fire from two working teams of Yautja hunters, along with a few hastily lobbed human explosive capsule weapons.

K'Shai prompted R'chnt to help free trapped humans under some debris then he commanded her to get clear, drew his spear and darted off with the other two hunters beside him towards the queen.

He jumped onto the rooftop of a nearby building, tore across it and leapt into the air, aimed for the back of the massive creature.

A ground force of hunters shot and speared at the thing as she hissed her deadly shriek and whipped her tail furiously, slamming hunters out of her way.

R'chnt was aware of the sounds of shattering helmets, breaking bone. This queen bore scars on her lengthy ridged crown; signs of other attacks from other Yautja. The very length of her crown, the width of her head, the number of spines down her back, all spoke that this queen had developed long ago; perhaps even one of the first to spawn on this world.

She fought cleverly, savagely; displaying her sharp intelligence that allowed her to survive as long as she clearly had.

When he clattered to her back and gripped one of those spines for support, she reared back wildly, thoroughly distracted from the Yautja at her feet surrounding her. He noticed, barely, that she had small holes spattered throughout her sides and out her back, evidence of human attempts to bring her down.

This queen was as fearsome as they come, he knew immediately. He vaguely thought her skull would make a worthy trophy in his home.

She spun around, jumping off the ground, whipping wildly trying to stab the intruder upon her with her tail, shrieking a high pitched call to any of her drone offspring who were alive, urging them to come to her aide.

R'chnt received covering fire from the other hunters and raised his spear. He powered it down through the back of her skull and the animal's fearsome hissing turned immediately into a gurgled choke. Instead of dropping in shock, accepting her death, this creature bucked at the very notion that she could be killed.

She whipped around wildly, throwing him off balance. He grabbed onto his spear lodged in her skull for support and it yanked loose, sending him skidding down her back. He quickly, reactively, impaled her with his dah'kte blades on his right wrist, drawing a spray of acid that hit his hide and fizzed as it seared into him.

He pulled himself back up the twisting animal and aimed his spear again, lodging it for a second time at the back of her skull, pushing so hard it came out her upper jaw and pierced through her inner jaw before it lodged into her lower jaw, at a sharp angle just behind her teeth.

A shame he had to punch so many holes into the mighty thing's skull, but it would still be a worthwhile trophy. What a fearsome creature she was, he thought respectfully as she finally collapsed below him, striking the ground so resentfully hard it nearly unfooted him again.

He slid off the queen's side, checking her over carefully to ensure she was dead. Sometimes a creature, as cunning as this one, might try to get the better of him with a clever stunt. He paused, watched her and gauged her condition.

Convinced she was dead, he looked about to the rest of the two groups of hunters, who were scattered and strewn in bloody heaps throughout the street, slowly regathering through the smoke and dust from such constant weapons fire.

R'chnt rounded the fallen queen's mighty head, raised his chin and straightened his back. He was injured, but the acid from the kainde amedha blood was something Yautja were well resistant to. The blood that could kill any other form of life he ever knew, was actually working against itself on his skin, cauterizing the very wounds they created, keeping him from bleeding worse.

They would leave scars, he knew, but they would be proud scars he would wear with confidence. This was a worthy opponent.

He barely heard the hiss. He barely registered the gathering hunters before him jump into action. He barely felt pain. Suddenly his world went numb.

He felt out of place, not really sure what was happening. He thought he was flying and as the solid brick wall of a building he was quickly speeding towards approached, he only had the faintest idea what had happened.

His focus was lost, his vision blurred, he could barely breathe. He looked about through the smoke-filled street and saw K'Shai, screaming in a panic, running towards him, arms extended to him as she crouched down.

He knew what was happening. He was still on the Clan ship, in his vision during their blood bonding ceremony. This was what he had seen; K'Shai coming to him reaching for him through a cloud of smoke.

He must have imagined everything else, because he remembered this well. She was sobbing; she looked upset though he was not sure why. The blood bond was for her protection, so she would be safer.

He tried to speak to her, he tried to reach for her, but he was not sure he was making words, he was not sure he was moving. She was clearly speaking, wailing, but yet if she was making sound, he could not hear. She was touching him, he saw her hands on him, but he did not feel.

He tipped his head back and the world fell dark.


End file.
